How A Heart Endures: The Rise
by Chemical-Rayne
Summary: Though her village was taken, her parents murdered, and her heart abandoned by the person she trusted most, she will not grovel, she will not plead, and she will die with honor at the hands of someone she once thought could help her. She will not be broken. At least, that's what she thought before she saw *him.* Ino's last thoughts before her execution. ShikaxIno. HIATUS for now.
1. Prologue

AN: Hey. So this is my second fan fiction and I hope that everyone likes it. I drew some pictures that sparked an idea and I guess I'll see where it goes from here. Happy reading! :)

~Kara

How A Heart Endures

I never thought my life would end this way. Tortured, beaten, and now to be killed in front of everyone as a show of what would happen if anyone else tried to defy the new village leader. This was not the way everything was supposed to work out, not how I envisioned everything to end. But I should have expected this. After all, the meaning from my life was lost, and I had nothing more to lose. I only found the situation fitting that I would be put out of my miserable struggling for good. The fighting spirit that had once engulfed me, blazing inside like a bright flame, had now flickered into embers. But even those dim, glowing coals were quickly fading, soon to be put out entirely by my eminent death.

I was led through the crowds gathered in the center of town, more and more people being ushered in as the seconds ticked by, everyone being required to attend the spectacle. How else was our leader supposed to gain power than to make a display of killing a criminal and traitor? The dust kicked up from the dirt beneath my slow-paced feet. I looked up briefly and noticed how dark and eerie the clouds seemed to look at the moment. I could feel a rainstorm building around me. Huh. Seemed like the earth was going to grieve along with my aching heart and defeated spirit.

As my captors and I neared the wooden platform in the middle of the gathering crowd, I could see the face of my reaper. A sad, hard look decorated her beautiful face and my stomach clenched in knots just looking into her entrancing scarlet eyes. Her raven hair was skewed about her shoulders in thick, tousled waves. Her nose seemed to wrinkle slightly as I approached, whether in disgust or disapproval, I did not know. As I passed her on my way up to the guillotine, I couldn't help but give her a scornful smirk, one filled with sorrow and exhaustion. I only wanted to end this already and quit prolonging what would eventually happen. I spoke.

"I never thought I would die this way." My voice was soft and sad.

She only grimaced at my remark. I continued.

"And I certainly never expected it to be at your hand, Kurenai."

The ex-team leader, swung her head to look at me, daggers and heat in her gaze. If she could, I knew she would have pushed me underneath the blade right then and there, if not for her plan of showing me off to all of the Konoha villagers.

"You brought this upon yourself, Yamanaka," she replied coldly through her teeth.

She was struggling to keep hold of her strained emotions. Who would know better than me, the person she was closest to for the past several months? Hell, I had been going through the same thing during my imprisonment. I still would be if not for the settling, sobering sense of imminent death that lingered just up the rest of the wooden steps and in the sturdy frame of the large, sharp blade.

"Let's just get to it, then, 'kay?" I suggested, all angry banter put aside. I didn't want to procrastinate any further.

Kurenai nodded and motioned for the guards on my either side to bring me all the way up to the top of the guillotine platform.

As I stood strong and fierce in front of the crowd, I could see the barb-wire fence where the old flower shop and several other buildings used to stand. This area that included the small square I was standing in now served as the new high treason imprisonment facility. All of the villagers in here with me were considered criminals among the few free citizens outside of the fence. Anyone who opposed the new government was considered a terrorist to Kurenai's sick society.

As I looked back at her now, I saw the strain of the past several years wash over her face. The signs of her weariness were not only in her tired actions or gaunt, pale face. When I looked down at the skin exposed below the long sleeves of her kimono, I could see the blackened, burning marks damaging her once perfect, beautiful flesh. Only her fingertips were visible now, and she quickly hid them when she noticed my glances.

I turned back to face the crowds again, one of the guards holding the rope that bound my wrists together giving my a swift shove toward the headrest of the guillotine. One of the brutish ninjas walked over to the rope that held the blade aloft. I placed my neck in line with the razor-sharp killing instrument, any tiny speck of hope lingering within me drifting off to oblivion. I had been left here, unwanted by the person I cared about most. My life had fallen to shambles, the village mirroring my inner turmoil, turning to ruins before my eyes.

During the last moments of life, a person is said to have flashbacks from the past play before his or her eyes, and I experienced this, though not in the way I originally thought. Instead of big moments that I had been able to remember clearly or even ones I had suppressed, the only memories that resurfaced and flooded through my head were the ones that had been my happiest. Of course, this would make sense, but the only thing that made me happy in these past events were a certain someone who had captured my heart and caused me to fall hard-yet willingly through-an endless paradise of life and love. Of course, this same person took my heart and stomped all over it, leaving me to bleed on the cold ground, only to reawaken as a sort of zombie-like creature, merely going through the motions of living.

That's how I wound up with Kurenai. After the sudden death of Lady Tsunade, I supported her aspiration to become the new Hokage. During the past couple of years, she had really made a name for herself among the villagers. Not only had she raised Asuma's child all by herself, but she decided to become a ninja once again, throwing herself into the occupation full force. She became a hero, and I became her aid, always there if she needed a favor or even a friend. I had even helped her take care of Little Asuma when she was unavailable. I didn't know why, but she and I became very close after she found me wandering the streets in the rain, dirty week-old clothes on my back and a dead, empty look in my eyes.

I still wonder what went wrong, where in the process she became so manipulative and I became so gullible. I still questioned my sanity at that low point in time, but I had also been so scorned and hurt that Kurenai had betrayed not only the village, but me as well. That was two times that I was disowned, abandoned and left to rot. My mind couldn't comprehend all of the hurt, merely turning onto autopilot to try and cope with the revisited emotions. I didn't even bat an eye when Kurenai threw my parents in prison and then had them tortured and killed for information everyone was aware that they didn't possess.

Yet, somehow, through all of that, I still managed to go on with my life. That is, up until now. I didn't know where my planning went wrong, where my luck turned sour and I no longer had cards to play in the poker game that was my life. So much bluffing, cheating, losing.

As these thoughts went through my mind in the few brief moments before the sentencing was finally organized, I didn't feel anything. The emotions were strong, but I had built up a wall against their invading force, severely lightening the blow. I guess I really wasn't a human anymore, but the sad, empty shell I became when my heart was broken so far beyond repair for the first time.

Ominous thunder rumbled in the distance and I glanced at the sky once more, a fat raindrop landing on my cheek, rolling down my face like a tear from the heavens. My short, platinum blond hair blew in my face as wind swept through the prison yard. During my arrest, my long hair was chopped into a crew cut. Since then, it had grown into a choppy, almost chin-length bob. The color was dull and greasy from neglect, but I seldom cared for the appearance I once took pride in.

Off in the distance, the sun was setting through the gathered storm clouds and I had the perfect view. Something in me clicked at that moment, the last time I would ever witness the majesty of a sunset. My throat constricted and the corners of my eyes began to burn as I watched this tiny bit of peace in a huge hell storm.

I heard the sound of papers shuffling behind me and someone coughed, a government official clearing his throat. The man then began to read out loud to the crowd my crimes and my punishment.

"This woman before you all," the man stated, "has been accused of the following..."

I didn't care to listen to the lies that surrounded me, burying me in a pit too deep to climb out of.

As I didn't even give the decent courtesy of pretending to listen to the man give his speech, a flicker of movement near the chain-link fence caught my eye. Intrigued, I watched as two figures scurried behind the preoccupied guards. Another was pacing beyond the fence, tools of the breaking-out variety in hand. So, someone was going to try and bust a friend out of the prison as my execution took place. Smart. The security around here was pretty lax anyway, seeing as less and less ninjas were being assigned the job of guarding us "criminals." In fact, most people didn't even go through ninja training anymore, considering most of the time they were deemed as threats to the new Hokage. To protect the village, Kurenai had been taking up some very shady treaties with the other lands, not even blinking when someone needed help, merely trying to keep off of everyone else's radars. Kurenai even became so paranoid as to create some sort of barrier around Konoha that left everyone without chakra to be able do any jutsus at all. I didn't know how she accomplished this, but the proof was in all the dejected shinobis that now lived in the prison.

I inspected the duo trying to break loose, watching as the helper beyond the fence began to cut through the metal with some sort of tool, possibly a file. I guessed this person was a male, but I wasn't watching too closely, merely keeping tabs of the two as the sun drifted ever closer to the horizon line.

Then something caught my eye. The female who was trying to break free was someone I knew well and had no intention of coming in contact with. I had been able to avoid her most of the time seeing as I had my own private little cell where they kept me apart from everyone else. Today was the first time I had been outside in a while. I liked the feeling of the cool crisp air entering my lungs. But watching this girl now, my heart nearly jumped into my throat. The blond hair in four assorted pigtails was a dead giveaway, not to mention the turquoise, cat-like eyes that seemed to entrance men. No longer did Temari of the Sand carry around her enormous fan, seeing as she had to give all of that up to live here in Konoha.

By now, the rain was pouring down, my hair sticking to my forehead and cheeks while my clothing clung to my scrawny, malnourished body. My heart pounded painfully against my ribs and my gaze zoomed in on the pair, scrutinizing every detail of the man outside the fence. The dark spiky ponytail, the small hoops in both ears, the constant far away expression, as if he was never fully in time with everyone else. But Lord knows he was always two steps ahead. That dark-eyed gaze was so intent on what he was doing, and I was caught completely off guard by his sudden appearance.

My breathing hitched and the world seemed to stop, yet swam before me in an odd pattern that didn't seem natural. I felt as if I would collapse but at the same time, I also felt the faint sense of flying, a side affect of a feeling I had not experienced for a very long time.

Tears built up in my eyes, the first I was to shed in recent memory.

I watched as Shikamaru Nara helped Temari through the opening he had just created.

"Yamanaka Ino," the man behind me called.

Shikamaru seemed to hesitate and looked up, raindrops flying from his face as his eyes landed on my dumbfounded face.

A startled sob echoed from my throat.

"You are hereby sentenced to decapitation by guillotine for your crimes of treason."

Shikamaru's eyebrows furrowed as he held my desperate gaze.

My tears spilled over. He shifted his position for a moment, seeming to try and get a better look by ducking into the hole he'd just created in the fence.

My knees gave out and I fell to the surface of the platform, my chin now hovering right above the headrest.

"Do you have any last words, Miss Yamanaka?"

I stared and stared at the man in front of me, the man who had broken me, yet who still had some sort of hold over me, like I would never truly be free from the feelings I once had for him. I was on my knees, shaking as Shikamaru glanced back to Temari as she climbed out of the prison yard.

I began to speak. "I—I don't..." The words were impossible to reach, but the air was so silent that Shikamaru snapped his head back to me at the sound of my voice.

And I suddenly knew what I wanted to say.

"My heart is still yours," I whispered, my voice carrying over the crowd.

A look of alarm shot across Shikamaru's face as if he sensed what would happen next. He seemed to be moving toward the platform now, toward me.

I gave a small, sorrow-filled smile. "Please take care of it."

He opened his mouth as if to speak, the sweetest words calling out to me. "Ino! Ino, stop!" I could barely make out what he was saying for the dull roaring in my ears.

"Goodbye." I mouthed the words as I heard the _shick_ the guillotine blade make as it was released. At the same time, I could see Shikamaru running, sloshing through the dirty puddles, shouting some nonsense that didn't matter anymore because he had Temari and I was about to die.

The world swam into oblivion as the blade flew down toward my neck.

AN: Okay, so that's the end of the prologue. Please give me feedback about this because I'm really excited to start from the beginning and go through their story. It will be in both Ino and Shikamaru's POV.

~Kara


	2. Chapter 1

AN: I am oh so very happy for the reviews I got just for putting out the prologue for this story! Thank you to all of you who think my story is gonna be worth something! Let's see, I don't really have a set list of ideas for what is going to happen yet and that is why it took me so long to write this chapter. So I'm just going to pick a place to start and move forward from there. Hope this works out for the best! All I can tell you is there will be a surprise at the end of the story and do not fret, my lovelies, for I will try to pull through! Please continue to tell me what you think!

~Kara

Chapter One

Ino's POV

"...Are not!"

"Am too!"

"Are not!"

This bickering had been going on for a while. Shikamaru and I were in another of our petty little arguments; nothing serious, just playful banter to fill the silence as we walked home from the forested training grounds.

As we wandered through the thinning trees, I spun on my foot to face him, staring him dead in his dark, narrow eyes.

"Shikamaru Nara, I am the best damned kunoichi in the history of shinobi, you hear me?" I gloated, putting my hands on my hips and childishly sticking my tongue out at him.

The sky was the kind of blue that only the summertime could bring, so deep and vivid that I could imagine soaring through the air, weaving among the thin, puffy, randomly-scattered clouds. Birds chirped jovially from their nests while the wind picked up and swept through the trees, causing the branches to sway their leaves, dancing to an unknown rhythm.

"Ino, you think just because you were finally able to win one sparring match during our last round that you're suddenly hot stuff, ready to take on anyone." Shikamaru snorted and dug his hands deep into the pockets of his black pants. "News flash: you know that this was the only time you've ever beaten me, or even come close. Pure luck because I didn't eat this morning and got weak from hunger."

He sneered at me in a way that made me want to sock him in the gut. I restrained myself and decided to just verbally abuse him until he got tired of being a sore loser.

"Oh, shut up! That was the worst excuse I've ever heard! You're just upset because the tides are finally turning and I'm gonna start kicking your ass during training _all_ the time!" I grinned widely and gave him a peace sign before turning around and continuing down the dirt path that lead to the village.

I skipped along merrily, a grouchy Shikamaru following not far behind. I could hear him grumbling to himself, probably admitting that I was now top chick around here and everyone should start paying their respects to me. Smiling to the nature that surrounded us I felt the breeze blow around me, ruffling my long, platinum hair. The summertime was so wonderful, always filling me with joy. Of course, technically, September was when summer gave way to fall, but not until much later. Immediately, this thought reminded me of another wonderful part of this month, and I spun on my heel to face Shikamaru once again, our noses only inches apart.

"Shikamaru!" I exclaimed breathlessly, my excitement completely overwhelming me. He jumped a bit in surprise, his eyes wide with shock. He didn't expect me to get so close to him. "My birthday is in a couple of weeks!"

He gave me a look that was not quite as positive as I'd hoped. Sneering he responded, "That supposed to mean something to me?"

What? Did he really just say the most rude, idiotic thing in the world to me, Ino Yamanaka, super hot kunoichi extraordinaire? If I had sleeves, I would have been rolling them up so I could full on brawl with the guy.

"You ass, of _course_ that's supposed to mean something to you! It means, _what are you going to get me that is extra spectacular because you are being such a complete jerk right now_!" I pouted, folding my arms over my chest and turning my face away from him.

I continued to walk on in the direction of the village, waiting until I heard the reluctant sigh come from behind me, signaling that I had won the argument. Today just seemed like my day, first with winning the sparring match and then telling Shikamaru off and having him actually _concede_ for once.

"So," I began hesitantly, peering ever so slightly at him from the corner of my eye.

"What is it now, Ino? I'm getting tired of hearing you gripe for nothing." He added something that sounded like "troublesome woman" to the end of that statement under his breath, but I only narrowed my eyes and chose to ignore it.

"I only wanted to know what you were going to be doing tomorrow, 'kay?" I sighed dramatically. "Jeez, you act like I'm so hard to be around sometimes."

"Sometimes would be an understatement," came his snarky reply.

"I didn't ask for lip, Shikamaru! Just answer the question." I could feel my short patience already getting the better of me.

"Why?" We were now walking side by side.

I gave him my worst look.

"I don't know," he finally said. "Just take a nap or go hang out with Chouji. Something like that."

"How boring." I smirked, though, because I knew better. "I think you should come with me, Sakura, and Naruto. We're going out."

He gave me an incredulous look and shook his head.

"Why would I do something like that?"

"Cause it would be _fun_!" I didn't like how my voice suddenly sounded like I was pleading. I was supposed to be dragging him into it that way I wouldn't be alone with the two love birds canoodling together while we went to see the latest action flick at the theater. "And-and…just come _on_!"

"What is this, like a double date?" There was another sneer pulling at his upper lip. Why did he sound so disgusted with that idea? I'm a catch, goddamit!

"NO!" I shouted, trying to sound equally as appalled as he did with the thought of the two of us on a date. Actually, that didn't really bother me all that much. Despite how often we fought, Shikamaru and I were really close, or at least that's what I thought. I mean, he was my best friend aside from Sakura, and even then his friendship was different than hers to me. Sakura and I were girly together, going on about boys, clothes, boys, makeup, boys, gossip. And did I mention boys? Where as with Shikamaru, I could talk about anything in the world and I felt so comfortable. He was the only person that I felt I could be completely out in the open and natural with, no facades or games necessary. "Of course it's not a date. I just don't-" I was trying to put into words my feelings right now, but it wasn't working out so well. "I really don't want to be alone with them."

I had been wringing my hands nervously, looking at the dirt on my shoes as I tried to speak my mind to Shikamaru. I looked up at him, the need for him to understand plain on my face. I searched his dark eyes, hoping to find something to indicate his feelings there.

His face was impassive for a moment, then he gave one quick nod. The expression I saw twist his features right before he gave his consent was so fleeting, but I caught the oddest look there. Something between loyalty and caring. I was baffled for a moment, but decided to write it all off as him having a freaky face. Although I knew this wasn't exactly true. His face actually comforted me quite a bit. But of course I would never mention something like that to him.

I broke out in a bright smile and threw my arms around him.

"Thank you, Shikamaru!" I chirped joyously. The sun falling around us made the scene perfect, as if agreeing with the way I felt at the moment. I whispered in contentment, "This makes me so happy."

He stiffened a bit against me, but then relaxed, circling his arms around me as well and awkwardly patting my back. We stood there for a minute in each other's hold. He was warm against my body and I also felt a sense of protection encompass me.

Suddenly, he pushed away gently, holding me out at arms length and then letting go. He rubbed the back of his neck and muttered nonsense to himself. I'm pretty sure I heard the word "troublesome" again, but like before, I let him slide. I didn't want to ruin our tender little moment with a fight. Though I knew in the past I probably would have. I wasn't sure what had been holding me back of late, but I didn't dwell on it either. Something about the topic made feel slightly uncomfortable.

"So, ah, what is, er, um, what are we doing tomorrow, then?" His words were scrambled and distorted, his face flushed and voice shaky.

"Well, Sakura invited me to go out with her and Naruto tomorrow evening. They're gonna have their first date and she's not sure she's ready to be alone with him." Just thinking about what she said to me made me kind of angry, but I didn't want to let that all out on Shikamaru. "I tried to tell her that friends aren't supposed to tag along on dates, but she insisted that I sat in somewhere in the movie theater near enough so she could spot me if she needed to and to sit with them at the Moonlight Cafe when they went to eat afterward." I shook my head at the memory and put my hands on my hips. "I told her how stupid that was, but she was really nervous about the whole thing."

"And I fit into this how?" He went from being all flustered to having his lazy, annoyingly smart-ass voice again. "Sounds like you two figured it all out."

"You are so dense sometimes! I mean really, for a smart guy, you sure are freaking dumb." I tried to cool my temper once again. Remember the nice little freaky hug we shared not too long ago. "I don't want to be a third wheel on the 'date' if they're both gonna be all over each other. I mean, I guess it won't be like a true date for us, but if you went along, it would be nicer for me. I know I could stand trying to be around the two of them because I'll have somebody to be with."

I was back to sheepishly staring at the ground. Examining my toes and fidgeting with my fingers. I rocked back and forth a bit on my heels as I waited for him to speak.

"And so you thought of me for this?" He didn't seem upset or rude but confused, as if he couldn't find the reason. I was a little miffed at this, but at the same time, I was shy when replying back.

"I, well, you, I mean... I like to be with you." I knew as soon as my words came out that they were completely stupid and sounded so wrong. But at the same time, my curiosity burned to hear his reaction to my muddled words.

He did a double take looking at me. "You...what?"

"I mean, I like being around you! You're my best friend and I'm happy whenever we hang out. I thought I'd be one hundred percent less miserable if you were to endure the date with me." I added in an even quieter voice than before, "I thought you might have a good time with me, as well."

He was silent for a few moments. I could see the buildings of Konoha rise up in front of us. We were nearly on the border of the village.

"Well, I already agreed to go, but I guess it shouldn't be as bad as I thought previously." He paused before turning to me, a serious expression on his face. "And Ino?"

"Yeah?" My response was barely audible. We had stopped walking and I was facing him, my full attention on what he was to say next.

"I like..." He didn't finish his thought, his face flushing as he ran his hand through his hair and he decided on something else to say. "I guess it won't be too much of a drag being around you for an evening."

I don't know exactly why, but this didn't seem to be the reply that I was hoping to hear. Albeit, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to hear in the first place, but I knew I was a bit disappointed by what he said. But he did say that he was going and that he wouldn't necessarily be miserable, so I guess it was a good start.

I smiled at him and looped my arm through his. Continuing to skip like before, he practically fell over trying to keep pace behind my bouncing figure.

"Thanks again for this, Shikamaru. Now let's head back to the village and do something fun together." As we entered the border of Konoha, I stopped skipping but continued to hold onto his arm. "I know! Let's go shopping for what I should wear tomorrow!"

Shikamaru's face seemed to grow pale. "I thought this wasn't a real date, Ino." He sounded weary and slightly frightened. What was with men and shopping?

"That doesn't mean that I don't want to be extra specially beautiful when we go out." We walked along the dirt paths in the village and passed people out doing daily business and activities. "Besides, I could meet some prospective boyfriends, so it'll all be worth it if I get a hot date for myself."

I snuck a peek at Shikamaru's expression and was satisfied when I saw that he seemed irked at my explanation. I didn't understand why, exactly, but all the same, I was happy he didn't want me throwing myself at random guys.

As we walked on, our quirky conversation keeping up easily while Shikamaru and I teased each other about the date tomorrow, we both spotted Chouji Akamichi heading toward us, his arm raised upward in a wave. Actually, he seemed to be trying to flag us down. I didn't know why, but Shikamaru and I steered our path toward our teammate.

"Hi Chouji!" I greeted him happily.

"Hey, man, what's up?" Shikamaru also called as we approached.

As we neared him, I noticed that he seemed to be out of breath, relief passing across his face as we finally stood in front of him. It looked like he had been looking for us for a while.

"Hey guys," he greeted us back. "I've been trying to get a hold of you, but I guess you two were sparring again."

"Yup, I won!" I shouted, gloating my awesome victory.

Shikamaru shot me a look of daggers. He began grumbling again, but I chose to ignore it altogether this time.

"Really?" Chouji looked impressed. "Looks like someone's been slacking off." I knew this was supposed to be a chide toward Shikamaru, but I couldn't help feeling offended myself. So the only reason I won was because Shikamaru wasn't training as hard? "Anyway, I've been looking for you because Tsunade's been asking to see all of the Konoha ninja. She has a message she wants us to hear. I was waiting to go with you so we could hear it together, but it's taken me awhile to find you."

"So I guess we should head over to her office now, then," Shikamaru suggested.

Chouji nodded and we all walked toward that building. Our teammate began rambling on about some food he's been dying to have at some new restaurant that had recently been opened when he looked down and shock spread over his features. He stopped walking and pointed at us.

"What the heck's up with _that_?" he questioned, confusion readable in his eyes.

Shikamaru and I stopped walking as well. I looked down to where he was pointing and suddenly knew why he seemed to freak out all of the sudden. My arm was still looped through Shikamaru's. If this had been the only thing Chouji had seen, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But the fact that we were also holding hands startled even myself. When the hell had _that_happened? What is this madness of Shikamaru and I _holding hands_? I why in God's name had neither of us seemed to notice?

Immediately, Shikamaru dropped my hand from his grasp. My skin felt instantly cold without him holding onto me, and suddenly became a bit depressed. Hormones were such a pain in the ass.

"Nothing,"Shikamaru mumbled, his voice empty. I had forgotten for a moment that Chouji had actually asked a question, I was so preoccupied with my weird emotions.

Chouji stared at us for a moment, confusion still in his eyes, but I could also see concern there as well. He shrugged after a moment and we all continued on toward Tsunade's office in silence.

We passed the guards that kept the entrance to the building secure and reached her door. Chouji knocked a few times.

"Enter," came a raspy female voice.

Chouji pushed open the door and we all walked through. Tsunade was there sitting at her desk, Shizune standing not too far away, a stack of papers in hand. Chouji stepped forward and spoke, which was admittedly a good thing considering I really had no idea what was going on.

"Squad ten is all here, Lady Hokage," he declared.

"Good," she replied. She seemed stressed out, obviously a little worse for wear than she normally was physically. "I wanted to let all of the shinobi know beforehand that some diplomats from Sand are going to be escorted here the day after tomorrow to spew off some sort of politics." So Lady Tsunade totally did not seem in the mood for crap today. I watched her patiently. "I wanted everyone to know that way we could be prepared. Because we are in treaty with the Sand Village I want everyone to be on their best behavior and very hospitable."

That sounded reasonable enough to me, but suddenly a dire thought wound its way into my brain and I had to know one thing, otherwise I would be sweating bullets until the Sand-nin came.

"Er, uh, Lady Hokage?"

Her gaze flew to me and she didn't seem all that happy.

"What is it, Miss Yamanaka?"

"Er, well, um, could you tell me who's going to be escorting the diplomats? I mean, just so we'll know and we won't be surprised or threatened or anything when they come..." My voice had faded away at the end. I knew it was the worst of cover-ups and everyone was sure to know I had just BSed my way through an explanation.

But Tsunade actually grinned at my request, as if she could already sense the direction of my thoughts.

"Well, Miss Yamanaka, since you did ask, I'll tell you that a man named Sayando Kame shall be one of the bodyguards."

I gave a big sigh of relief that I tried to squelch at the last minute. And then I realized that she said one of the bodyguards. No.

"A-and the other?" I stuttered, my hands shaking and my face growing pale.

She answered me with pity in her eyes.

"Temari of the Sand."

Shit.

AN: Yeah, so what do you guys think about that? I tried to create lots of stuff for my readers to look forward to for the next several chapters. I'm sorry this was all so random, but I need a jumping off point, and I guess this seemed as good as any. Well, leave your suggestions in the comments, I look forward to reading them. I'm crossing my fingers for this story!

~Kara


	3. Chapter 2

AN: Well, just because you are my lovie-dovie lovelies and left nice comments for me, I decided to update quickly this time. Winter break starts this weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to write tons during that time. I'm excited for my story. Now, I'm just as awaiting as all of you for the next twist or turn, because, like I said, I don't even know how this is going to play out; only some of the key points and ending. Have fun reading my quick update, dearies! Lots O' Lovin',

~Kara

Chapter Two

Shikamaru's POV

Ino was in a terrible mood. Ever since our meeting with Lady Tsunade, she had been kicking at the ground and shouting at anyone near her who was walking down the street. Chouji left us not long after we left the Fifth's office, claiming he was meeting Naruto at Ichiraku's for ramen. I really questioned his excuse however when his actual words came out, "Er, Shikamaru, I think I have to be somewhere." He had looked down and pointed at his wrist as if there was a watch there. "I, er, um, I, uh, hafta, er, meet ramen at Naruto's for Ichiraku, so I'll, uh, get out Ino's path of destruction." He quickly fled after that, leaving me to deal with a fuming Ino.

We walked along the main street, Ino muttering something about "killing her and her family." I wasn't too comfortable with her comment, but decided not to say anything lest she change her subject of target over to me. Her cerulean eyes blazed with anger and intensity, her movements stiff as she stomped across the dirt road. It wasn't too difficult for me to keep pace with her, and even if I did lose sight of the menacing young woman, I was pretty sure she wouldn't be hard to spot amongst a crowd. An extremely angry kunoichi in a suggestive, purple outfit with long, platinum blonde hair would be easy to pick out in the middle of a grouping of terrified civilians hugging the edges of the buildings to keep out of her path.

"Come on, Shikamaru!" she finally spoke, her first words that weren't mumbled threats. "I don't care if the bitch from the Sand _is_ coming in a few days; I'm still going to be super hot for the outing tomorrow." She gnashed her teeth together. "She will _not_ ruin my fun, awesome time with my friends!"

She quickly grabbed my hand, pulling me along despite the fact that I was desperately trying to wriggle free from her hold while at the same time dragging my feet through the dirt, if only to slow her down. She was a woman on a mission at the moment, and I was pretty sure that even a nuclear war wouldn't be able to stop her in this state of mind.

"Ah, Ino?" My voice was slightly hoarse and even more concerned as she continued to march through the streets, turning her head from side to side to try and find a suitable boutique to shop in. "Are you sure you want to go shopping right now? We could go get something to eat, or go see Sakura or something…" I was grasping at straws here. If shopping with Ino normally was a drag, then I was pretty sure tagging along now in her current mood would ensure my death by the end of the day.

"Did you not just hear me, Nara?" she growled. Her stormy gaze locked onto me for a moment. "I will not let that bad news keep me from being happy." She finally dropped my wrist. I tenderly massaged my sore appendage with the fingers of my other hand. "Temari won't get to me like she usually does." I looked up at her this time as she spoke. Her voice was considerably quieter and calmer. Her eyes were now focused on something in the dirt. Her cheeks were flushed with anger and frustration.

"Ino…"

She looked up at me all of the sudden, her anger seeming to have dissipated. Giving me a nervous smile, she rubbed the back of her head and let out an awkward laugh.

"You don't need to come with me, Shika, I was only angry at the news. I shouldn't have taken it out on everyone else." She continued to smile strangely at me before looking down again and walking off, her shoulders slightly slumped and her arms resting tenderly over her chest.

I watched her walk away for a minute, something about her entrancing me, not letting me take my eyes off of her retreating figure. And then I was sparked back into motion. I couldn't just let her go off on her own to sulk and feel miserable about herself. She was my friend.

"Ino!" I called as I ran forward to catch up with her.

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed Leaf kunoichi turned around, her eyes and nose slightly red. She looked confused as I reached the spot where she stood. As I neared, I could tell that she was on the verge of tears.

I really didn't want her start crying, for that would be such a pain to deal with. So I ended up saying something really stupid in the end.

"Er, Ino, if you want, I can still go with you. I mean, if that would make you happy." My sentence became muddled as my voice lowered and I mumbled off the rest of my words.

"Shikamaru, I said you didn't need to," she stated quietly, playing with the ends of her hair. Something about her meek stance made my stomach knot. She looked up at me threw her long, thick lashes, uncertainty plain in her sky-colored eyes.

"I know." I took a deep breath, knowing I would regret my next statement later on. "I—I want to. Go with you. Shopping." Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why did I say that?

A voice inside my head decided to voice an opinion. _Because it's Ino and you want her to be happy_.

I wanted to tell that voice to go to hell and mind its own business, but then I thought better of trying to communicate telepathically with myself.

Suddenly, Ino looked up at me straight on, no hiding her gaze through long, luscious lashes or anything. A large, radiant smile captured all of her features, and her face seemed to light up like the sun breaking across the horizon. I lost my breath at that moment, similar to what had happened when we were walking back from the training grounds earlier. I wasn't able to explain the odd fluttering in my chest or the rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

"Really?" She sounded as if my request were too good to be true. Actually, compared to my regular lazy behavior, it was. But for some odd reason that I would never be able to fathom, I wanted to see that beautiful smile animate her features all the time. "Oh thank you, Shika! I'm so happy!" She threw her arms around my neck and planted a kiss on my cheek. I seemed to freeze in time for a moment, my skin buzzing with electricity where her lips had touched.

The world had stopped for that second when we were connected together by that kiss, but in reality, it was only a second afterward that the moment was over and we were walking alongside each other, her arm looped through mine. I still couldn't understand how her temperament had changed so drastically in that short amount of time. I wasn't exactly unhappy about that, however, seeing as how she no longer wanted to kill anybody. I sighed heavily as we started to walk down the road again, Ino skipping joyously beside me while she continued to clutch my arm.

I knew women were sensitive, I mean, I had to live with my mother, after all. But Ino seemed to change emotions at the drop of a hat. One minute she was stomping around all angry, the next she was all guilty and embarrassed, then she was weepy and upset, and even after that she was happy and glowing like sunlight. And there was no in-between with her. Her emotions were always extreme, on opposite sides of the spectrum. I had to admit, though, she was always passionate, never doing anything half-assed like I usually did. She always found some sort of motivation to continue on with a mission or a goal or a dream. I admired her for being able to commit to something one-hundred percent.

And with these thoughts stirring in my head, I found myself staring favorably at the woman pulling my arm as she babbled away about something ordinary and trivial that was happening in her life, something that while it might be unimportant to someone else, still seemed to be the center of her focus at that point in time. She smiled that brilliant smile at me, laughing at something she thought funny or pleasant. How had I not noticed how stunning she was when her features were so animated and alive? How blue her eyes were, more deep than the sky? How she seemed to have transformed into a beautiful woman right in front of me and I had not even noticed?

"Shikamaru? Is there something on my face?"

Her voice shook me from my unruly thoughts and I focused my attention on her. She was looking at me with worry and quite a bit of curiosity as well. Damn, I'd been staring openly at her, probably with some disgustingly dopey look on my face. This was silly, she'd think I was some sort of sick pervert with whatever kind of stupid smile I'd been displaying.

"Ah, n-no, Ino. I was j-just, uh, listening to you," I answered. Shit. Why was I stuttering?

_Way to go, Shikamaru_, I chastised myself, _turning into a babbling fool in front of her. She probably thinks she's going to be hanging out with a nutcase tomorrow on the _date.

"Really?" she responded with a devilish grin. We stopped walking for a moment. "Then what was I saying?"

Double shit. What was I supposed to say to that? I was going to have to pull some kind of ingenious remark out of my ass to cover for this arbitrary lapse in judgment.

"I don't know," I finally replied, an air of arrogance in my voice. "Probably something mundane and troublesome. If only I had the patience for those kinds of time-consuming ramblings."

As soon as the words escaped, I wished I could take them back. Ino looked at me with such confusion, but that emotion quickly dissolved into rage and anger. She pushed away my arm and stalked off in front of me.

Now you've done it, you idiot. She's pissed off again right after you got her to calm down and be happy.

Well, I couldn't very well go after her and tell her the truth, that I was suddenly seeing her as "my really hot female friend" instead of just "my annoyingly, troublesome teammate." Yes, I was sure that would go over well. But I did need to say something. What I had told her was a complete lie. Well, sort of. I really had no idea what she was talking about because I was lost in my own head.

"Ino!" I ran toward her, trying to keep up with her quick pace. "Listen, I'm sorry, okay? That was a stupid thing to say. I was just… I was just…" I was at a loss. I didn't know how to explain this away.

"Well?" she yelled. "What are you 'just,' huh Shikamaru? I thought you were coming with me because you wanted to, not because you felt obligated." Angry tears formed in her eyes. Had I really caused that much damage with that simple little explanation? Man, was I in big trouble.

"I'm sorry," I apologized again quietly.

"I don't think 'sorry' is gonna cut it, this time." Her voice was a rumble in the back of her throat. "I don't know why we have to fight and be at each other's throats all the time, but I really just can't deal with it today, okay?"

"Ino…"

"Shikamaru, I think we should stay away from each other for the rest of the day. I just can't handle you right now." There was pain in her voice, and although she seemed to be pushing me away, there was a different message being given through those endless blue eyes.

For some reason, I seemed to snap and anger overtook me, dragging me into the depths of rage along with my blonde companion.

"Damn it, Ino!" I shouted. "Why do you do that? I was being nice to you earlier because I knew you were upset about the visitors from Sunagakure, but you always push me away. I know I don't always say the right thing, but do you know how difficult you are to deal with sometimes?"

"Excuse me?" She looked absolutely bewildered at my comment. "I seem to remember that I was fine after I apologized to you about that. And you had to go and ruin our time together by belittling me yet again!" Tears were opening streaking down her face now as we fought in the middle of the village. I winced at the sight of the salty droplets of moisture clinging to her lashes, knowing that I was the cause. Why did she affect me this way? "Why can't we just be civil to each other rather than always trying to find a reason to be horrible?"

Her question struck me silent for a minute, as I wasn't quite sure how to respond. Why _did_ we always feel the need to be combative toward each other? Several people whispered as they looked at us with concern, probably hoping we wouldn't cause a nuisance for them. And hoping that I wasn't abusing Ino.

"Because that's how it's always been," I finally answered. My anger had dissipated as quickly as it had come. "We always fight and argue. That's what we do."

"Yeah, but I don't want to fight with you anymore, Shika," she replied, softly, her anger finally waning as mine had done. "I…I care about you too much." Her face was flushed, but from embarrassment and not anger. Tears still clung to her face, her nose and eyes red and watery. "Can we be nice to each other, now?"

"Ino…" I sighed, stepping up to her and wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"Shikamaru, please?" she insisted.

I nodded. "Of course." How could I have answered any other way?

She smiled again, not the same earth-shattering beam as before, but a soft, content little smile that made me feel like all was forgiven. Only why did I still feel like a complete douchebag?

We walked again, keeping a small distance between us this time. I tried to keep my thoughts under control so as not to have any more altercations emerge from my stupidity and lack of focus. I didn't know exactly what Ino was trying to look for, but as we rounded a corner, her eyes brightened and she ran over to a window display. The boutique was called Midnight Masquerade and seemed to be a shop filled with formal wear, shoes, jewelry, and all kinds of accessories. I wanted to gag merely standing in front of the building. But Ino seemed to think differently as she drank in the sight of merchandise, hopping from foot to foot in excitement.

"Let's go in here, Shikamaru!" she squealed, forgetting our silent "no touching" agreement by grabbing my hand and pulling me in behind her.

Vast displays of evening wear including gowns, suits, gloves, hats, and other fancy non-necessities seemed to be overflowing from every nook and cranny in the clothing section while a glass counter filled with sparkling diamonds and gleaming metals took over the right side of the boutique. An area near the back held all of the shoes and matching purses. An overpowering scent of perfume and mothballs engulfed my senses causing my eyes to water. I thought I was going to be sick.

"Holy crap!" Ino exclaimed. "It's awesome! Let's go look at pretty stuff!" She took my hand again and dragged me into a suffocating aisle of back to back ball gowns.

"Ino," I managed to choke out between perfume-induced coughs. "This is ridiculous. You're going to the movies on with Sakura and her date." I coughed again. "Do you really want to look like you're going to a royal function?"

She seemed to think serious about my question for a minute while I tried my damnedest not to sigh heavily and roll my eyes. What a drag this was turning out to be. I couldn't really remember why I had agreed to come with her again and the cloud of perfume I continuously inhaled was definitely not helping.

"I guess not," she finally sighed. "But maybe something simple and pretty…" She trailed off as she maneuvered over toward the shorter, less poofy, cocktail-style dresses.

We stayed for a while as she sorted through dresses, trying to find a suitable one for her. She tried on many of them, but wouldn't let me see because she wanted it to "be a surprise." So I had to sit in a chair in the corner of a shop, counting the number of dots on each of the ceiling tiles. Finally, after what I assumed had been several hours, Ino emerged from the maze of dresses, a silvery garment with crystalline embellishments hanging from her arm. She seemed really happy about her find, but at the same time, when her gaze drifted over to me, I could sense a bit of smugness playing on her face.

She was about to walk over to me when she was sidetracked by the display of jewelry only a few feet away. Something seemed to have caught her attention. Her eyes widened and she practically pressed her face against the glass.

Overcome with curiosity, I stood up, stretched a bit, and walked lazily over to where she stood bent over and staring enraptured at a piece of jewelry.

"What is it?" I asked, resting my back against the low glass counter.

"That one," she answered breathlessly, her index finger pointing to something just inside the display. "The necklace with the roses."

I stooped down and looked to where she was indicating. As I searched for the specific piece she was looking at, I caught sight of a sparkling, jeweled necklace. And I knew immediately this was what she had seen. It was a light, shimmering rhinestone-covered necklace with small, swooping incrustations of a rose vine, the brilliant flowers blooming sporadically among the leaves in elegant, twisting patterns. Even I could see why she liked the necklace. In my mind, I could easily picture the dazzling piece of jewelry encircling her neck as she walked into a room full of elegantly dressed people. She would be the center of attention, all eyes watching her as she appeared in an over-the-top black ball gown, her hair falling down her back in a cascade of shimmering ringlets… Ino's voice startled me back to reality.

"Oh my God, is it really that expensive?" Her face visibly fell. "And it would've looked so nice with my dress." She stood up.

I looked at the necklace once more, taking in the price of the beautiful piece of jewelry. It was a little bit pricey, but not overly so. If Ino wanted to get a brand new, exorbitant dress, however, I could see how also buying a costly necklace would be a problem. I stared at the tiny rhinestone roses, deep in thought. Finally, I stood up and face a crestfallen Ino.

"Why don't you look for a nice pair of shoes to match your dress? We'll split the cost of whatever heels you decide to buy."

Ino looked at me incredulously for a moment, her eyebrows scrunching together. As she tried to read my expression, however, a smile turned up lips upward and her eyes brightened.

"Are you sure?" she asked cautiously, as if I were about to pull the rug from under her feet.

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll meet you at the register."

She hugged me tightly before prancing off to the back of the store where the numerous pairs of shoes were kept, leaving me with a fluttering in my stomach and the dull roaring of blood rushing in my ears.

By the time Ino returned, I was standing at the check-out counter, patiently waiting for her to come so we could purchase her things and get the heck out of the place. I swore I could feel my estrogen levels rising just from being around so many girly products and scents. Luckily, the shoes she chose we well within my price range, so I wasn't too hurt for cash after the exchange I'd had with the manager while Ino was sifting through high heels.

We exited the boutique and I breathed a big breath of clean, fresh, perfume-free air, a happily humming Ino right beside me.

"Thank you so much, Shika!" she squeaked in contentment.

"Don't mention it," I replied. "I was an ass to you earlier."

She waved her hand at my comment as if brushing the words away. "That's okay. In the end, everything turned out okay, anyway." She continued to smile. And it was my smile, a beam of light in the growing evening.

I looked up suddenly at the setting sun. I hadn't even realized that dusk was approaching already.

As I walked in step with the blonde kunoichi, however, I didn't mind one bit that I had spent the whole day shopping and arguing with her. She looped her arm through mine for the third time that day, carrying her shopping bag in her other hand. We walked toward her house where I would drop her off and then continue on to my on home where my mother and father would probably be waiting with dinner and a lecture about staying out all day without telling them. I didn't care, though. I continued down the old village road, Ino on my arm, as we were bathed in the pink glow of sunset. I stuck my other hand in my pocket, running my fingers over the velvety material covering the flat, rectangular jewelry box. A smile slowly crept up my lips as I thought about what would commence tomorrow evening.

And for once, I couldn't wait.

AN: So, I wanted to update this weekend because I just felt like it, and I think this chapter turned out pretty well. I thought it was a sweet prelude to the date the next night. I think I shall switch each chapter's POV between Ino and Shikamaru. I will put the image of the necklace up on my profile soon. And Ino's dress, too, when we see what it really looks like. Such exciting things are to come and we haven't even reached the serious and depressing stuffs yet! *screams* We are in for a roller coaster, peoples! Anyway, I am done ranting. Please tell me what you think; I love to hear from my readers and fellow writers!

~Kara


	4. Chapter 3

AN: Sorry for the slow-ish update, but everyone knows how the holidays are. School starts up on Monday (my second semester of senior year) and that means our practice for spring musical shall also begin. I won't be around much then, I can tell you all that, so be patient with me please. I will do my best and hopefully, combining tonight and tomorrow, I can pull off two chapters and post them.

Another thing I wanted to address was the swift way in which the first two chapters took place. I'm not sure if anybody agrees with me, but the way I handle the ShikaIno relationship is that I already believe from the way that they interact together in the series that they have already started to develop feelings for each other. I should mention that my story takes place a few years after the point in time that the manga currently covers. So please bear with me in that regard. I'm going to lengthen and suspend you all much more from now on. I just needed a good starting point. And now I believe I have found one. Anyway, sorry for talking a lot. Read, review, enjoy, and all that jazz,

~Kara

Chapter Three

Ino's POV

I sighed heavily, my shoulders rising and then eventually falling as I let out my intake of breath. So far, today had been very uneventful. The sky was as clear as it had been yesterday when I had spent my afternoon and evening with Shikamaru, but somehow, the lack of clouds only made me feel even more depressed as I sat at the front counter of the flower shop, waiting for some poor schmuck who was desperate enough to buy flowers from me. Of course, I was incredibly excited for tonight to come, for the sinking sun would also bring the promise of a fantastic night with my friends. But right now, in this moment, I wanted to smash my face against the counter top in boredom.

The sky was finally fading to an orangey-pink color, and the moon had risen not long ago. I would only have to wait a little while longer before closing the shop and going home where I could beautify myself with the fancy dress and shoes I'd bought yesterday. This also reminded me of my time shopping with Shikamaru. I smiled to myself at the memories. We had a great time together despite the several fights that had taken place the same day. I had been serious when I said that I didn't want us to fight all the time anymore. I mean, I knew we would never stop bickering altogether; our personalities were too polar opposite for that. But I at least didn't want petty arguments that only wrecked our intricately woven friendship.

I sighed again and laid my forehead down on the cool surface of the counter.

I knew a lot of people didn't understand the way our relationship worked, the one between Shikamaru and me. Hell, even Chouji didn't know what was going on half the time. We'd created a way to wordlessly communicate sometimes, either by knowing how the other would react from a certain situation, or from the senses, emotions, and facial expressions that we shared with each other to let either one of us know what we were feeling. I wasn't sure how this had developed, but I figured that after spending years together as children going through the academy, training and going on missions as the Genin Squad Ten, or even after we all became Chuunin, we had all been together long enough to be such close friends. Of course, this still didn't explain the reason that the relationship between Shikamaru and me was so much more deep and complicated than that, but I tried not to delve too deeply into those kinds of thoughts. If I strayed too far into those waters, I'd get sucked under after uncovering truths that might be better off if they stayed hidden.

If I had to admit something to myself—which is always hard because usually when I ignore the tough subjects they go away for a while and leave me in peace—I would probably say that there could be something there between us.

Immediately after thinking those words, an involuntary shiver raced up and down my spine. What a stupid thing for me to think about while I was about to go on a "date" with him.

I groaned aloud and slammed my forehead on the counter before turning my head to the side and staring at the register. Stupid feelings. They always got in the way and made everything complicated. I mean, I didn't actually _like _Shikamaru or anything like that—well, not in the mushy-gushy sense—but I would admit that there was something electric between us at times. Of course, I would gladly chop off my hair again before acting upon strange electrical disturbances. And that was saying a lot.

The bells attached to the entrance door jingled and I lifted my head as a customer walked in. I couldn't see the person's face at first because the rows of shelves and aisles obscured my vision, but as soon as the patron stepped into my view, my jaw dropped and my eyebrows shot upward toward my hairline. For the person that had stopped in to get flowers from the Yamanaka's today was none other than a certain blond, spikey-haired, blue-eyed, idiot wearing the most hideously fluorescent orange T-shirt I had ever seen.

"Hey, Ino!" Naruto greeted me, waving his arm wildly in the air above his head. "I'm glad you're still here 'cause now I can ask for your help on picking out flowers for Sakura!" Why did it seem like everything he said was shouted through a bullhorn as loudly as his voice would allow?

"You're seriously asking for me to do that when you're about to go on your first date with her in only a couple of hours?" I was in disbelief, but the thought of Naruto coming to my shop to buy flowers was kind of funny, and I had to work very hard at not letting him see me laughing.

"Yeah! Why do you ask?" He seemed sincerely confused as he scratched his head and looked at me with his wide, innocent gaze.

I rolled my eyes and felt like pounding him on the head.

"You idiot! Sakura could walk in here at any second to talk to me and catch you doing something considered to be a surprise!" Of course someone like Naruto had no experience in this kind of area. The only other girl who he ever had a chance of going out with had been Hinata, but she had quickly gotten over her silly crush after Kiba finally spilled his guts and told her that he was in love with her. I sighed in exasperation. "If this relationship doesn't work out for you, Naruto, I'm not sure you'll get another chance.

"Why not?" he pleaded in a whiny voice.

I tried to keep myself from rolling my eyes again and evaded his question.

"Come on, Romeo, let's get you something nice for your pink-haired Juliet." I trotted out from behind the counter, grabbed his arm, and dragged him to the other side of the shop.

I spent the next hour trying to explain the distinctions in different flowers and blossoms to Naruto. He didn't know squat about flowers and that was so obvious that it was nearly painful. Of course, explaining all of this to him turned out to be useless since he had no idea what he was doing or how much bouquets could cost. Anything I said to him went in one ear and out the other. I could tell because instead of paying attention to my lecture about orchids and lilies—or even my favorite flower, the purple iris—he kept asking questions about Sakura that he should've been asking her himself. Hell, weren't they on the same team together for years or something like that? They were just about as close to each other as I was with Shikamaru. I prayed quietly while he was digging out money from the pockets of his jeans to pay for a bouquet centered around a pink camellia. I truly hoped that Sakura knew what she was getting into.

"Uh," Naruto grunted, causing me to cease my silent wish and pay attention to the blond imbecile in front of me.

"What?" I questioned him.

"Can I borrow some money from you Ino? I don't seem to have my wallet on me."

I could feel my face grow hot and my patience—which had been wearing thin during the time of the visit—finally collapse into dust.

"What? Naruto Uzumaki, that bouquet costs all of my earnings from working at the shop this week! You really expect me to loan you money when I am ninety-nine point nine percent sure that you will NOT pay it back?"

He hesitated to answer for a while, staring at his feet while he rocked back onto his heels. He looked up at me then, his eyes big and round like a child's.

"Maybe…Will you?"

I gave a long exasperated groan and massaged my temples with my palms.

"I will give them to you out of my own pocket money if you swear to leave now and never come buy flowers from me again!" That was the only offer I was planning on making.

A broad, over-excited grin stretched across his face, perfectly guilt-free.

"Aw, thanks, Ino! You're the best!"

I watched him walking away as he muttered something about Sakura loving his "surprise," the jingling door slamming closed behind him.

_That was horrible! What will the date be like?_ I thought in horror as I stretched my stomach across the counter and hung my arms off of the other side.

While in this position I got a full view of the clock that hung on the wall next to one of the windows. The clock showed that I still had two more hours before closing time, but I was already sick to death of being in the shop, the perfume of all of the delicate flowers finally causing me to want to run out for fresh air and feel the sun's dying heat on my face. Of course, by this time, the large yellow sphere of light was already half way covered by the mountains on the horizon. I didn't want to be here any longer, but what else was I to do? My dad was the type to crash in on the date unexpected and make me do grunt work for the rest of the night if I were to skip out now.

_Pull it together, Ino_, I told myself. _Would you want Shikamaru to see you this way?_

No, I definitely did not. If he saw me like this, he'd never—

I cut that train of thought off right there. If I continued with fantasies and weird obsessions like those that were in my head, I knew trouble was sure to follow. There was no way that I was going to let what Shikamaru thought of me get in the way of my life. How could I? That would only prove that he had some sort of hold over me, something that I had decided to dispel long ago. We would never be anything more than good friends, no matter what the strong pull of the chemistry between us—

Ahh! I was doing it again, letting those thoughts come back into my head and plague my mind with pictures and images that really didn't belong there. If I was being honest, it wouldn't really matter anyway if I felt _that _way about him. I knew for a fact that he didn't think that I was anything but a loud, annoying, bad attitude-having, bubble-headed, blond teammate who always seemed to get in the way more often then not. I would know: he said this kind of crap all the time. Chouji would tell me that Shikamaru didn't really mean those things he said and that he would only say them to keep up his macho appearance.

And that is where I would find a flaw in Chouji's argument: Shikamaru was in no way, shape, or form anything close to the word "macho." A little bit of a show-off, yes, and many times having a superiority complex that could rival that of the Neji Hyuuga's, but never was he macho, trying to impress others with a display of male strength or ability. That was disgusting and petty, much too lowly for something Shikamaru would do. I would always explain to Chouji that Shikamaru was not that kind of guy, and he would just say, "Well, then I guess he just thinks you're pretty."

Those were the kind of comments that really caused me to start pulling my hair out. I mean, what was I supposed to do with an inference like that? Try to take heed of it and go jump his bones or something? I mean, I wouldn't do that anyway because the thought of anyone jumping Shikamaru's bones sounded really, really wrong, but besides that, my head would start spinning and I would believe that a tear in the space-time continuum had just been created.

I could feel a mental breakdown coming on. I'd been getting them more frequently, lately, and as such, had been feeling myself drawn ever closer to Shikamaru in a way that scared me shitless. I'd been hanging out with Sakura a ton more, too, because she always had something intelligent to say. That, and mindless gossip always got me to stop freaking out and jumping at every sound. I needed to find some way to calm myself down, otherwise I would never be able to endure the date tonight, and now I had three people counting on me. Besides, I didn't want to be stuck as the new item of conversation for every female in Konoha's gossip sessions. That would be terrible, only because I would be cast in the most embarrassing light: the girl who freaked out on her best friend's first date.

I shook my head to try and dislodge all of the thoughts I'd just been reeling over. I would just calm down and act like a normal person tonight. Anyway, I had dressing up and glamming out to look forward to later. That, and I was a girl after all; I would totally want to overanalyze absolutely everything that went on with Sakura and Naruto during the date tonight. And I would need to dissect every little thing that Shikamaru said to—

I froze my brain for the umpteenth time. I really needed someone to squirt me with a spray bottle or something every time I started with that kind of thought line. No, I wouldn't think about the mess that was going on in that aspect of my life. I would just try to be civil, sane and have a good time with friends.

I sighed as I tried to massage my temples again. Life was becoming way too complicated for someone like me. My inner musings were halted by the jingling of the front door once again. I groaned. If Naruto had decided to come back, I would beat the living daylights out of him.

Walking over to the entrance, I balled my hands into fists, ready to sucker punch a certain spiky-haired ninja if need be. But I really needn't have gotten so worked up in the first place. It was only my mother walking through the door.

"Hello, sweetheart," she greeted me, pulling me into a loose hug and brushing the bangs away from my eyes. "I do wish you would pull all of your hair back, dear, so everyone could see your beautiful face."

I swatted her hand away and moaned like a child, smiling faintly, though, because I loved my mother very much.

"What are you doing here, Mom?" I asked her, curious because it was still a couple hours before I needed to close the shop down.

"Oh, well, uh…" She seemed a bit nervous about something and I grew a bit worried.

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, dear, I only wanted to, er, well, I guess take over for you so you could run along and prepare for your date tonight." She smiled a little too tightly, the gesture not touching her eyes. Actually, one of her eyes seemed to be twitching a little bit.

Now, I was no expert, but either my mom had some sort of mental disorder that had not appeared until just now, or she was lying. Odd for someone who would rather cut off her own hand than lead a bad example for her daughter. I narrowed my eyes at her in suspicion.

"It's not a date," I replied immediately out of habit.

"But why wouldn't you want to go on a date with the lovely Nara boy? Oh well, in any case, I will be conducting business with an old friend and I'd like to catch up in peace if you don't mind." Her excuse was beginning to shift from what she had said earlier.

"Don't change the subject, Mother."

"Oh, don't you be so bossy and snarky with me, young lady." Her threat was empty, however, her eyes flickering back and forth from me to the door.

"I don't believe you, Mother, but I'm going to take this opportunity anyway because now I can start beautifying myself early."

I watched her doubtfully the whole time I gathered my bag and jacket from behind the counter. I could take a hint and this would work to my benefit anyway.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Ino, my love," she chirped, her voice high and shaky. "Now, you have a good time, okay?"

Backing toward the door, I gave her a slight nod before pushing my way out, deciding to drop whatever issues I had with her strange words and go home to get ready. We used to live right next door to the shop, but in the last couple of years, my father had decided that he wanted a bigger home to live in. I wasn't exactly sure why seeing as how we already had two extra bedrooms and three-thousand square feet of space inside the old place. But we ended up keeping it and are just renting it out for extra cash. Not that we really needed it. Yamanaka Flowers was flourishing of late and the cash kept rolling in. My hours had increasingly been getting longer, making it hard to find time to train—and also leaving me with little opportunity for missions—but the payoff was nice when I would officially be an adult on the twenty-third of the month. I would need to start fending for myself and learn to stop relying on my parents for absolutely everything.

The streets were quiet as dusk had fallen. I knew I had a few hours until Shikamaru would come pick me up and we'd go meet with Sakura and Naruto. Initially I only had about forty-five minutes to get ready. But with my mother coming in early to end my shift, I would have a good hour and a half or so more. The streets were nearly empty as everyone had gone inside to get ready for weekend plans. I was excited for tonight, I wanted to relish it. Because I knew tomorrow that my world would be cast into hell. At least from the time Temari showed up, to the time that she left.

I didn't want to think about her any more, so I kept my thoughts light as I neared my home. I saw it in the distance, and once I had walked up the pathway to the front door and scrambled inside, I raced up the stairs to jump in the shower and begin the beautification process.

I made sure to wash my hair extra well and shave my legs and under my arms. After I was out of the shower, I blow-dried my hair and curled all of it so the platinum strands shined like gold and cascaded down my back in a waterfall of long, loose waves. I took my mother's advice and parted my hair to the side, pinning it back and away from my face. I used a long, silvery ribbon to tie part of it up at the back. Also while I was in the bathroom, I did my makeup. I carefully mascaraed my lashes and lined my eyes with a smoky gray pencil. A little bit of rose-colored blush just barely brushed over the cheeks, and some sandy pink lip color stained on my mouth. I smiled at myself in the mirror and then ran into my room to put on my dress and accessories.

As I pulled the flowing, silvery material from the closet, I reveled in the memories from the day before when I had "persuaded" Shikamaru to come shopping with me. I pulled the lovely dress from the protective plastic and slid it on over my undergarments. Of course, it was a perfect fit seeing as how I had tried it on at the store before purchasing it. The fabric was light and airy, causing it to flow from my hips and ripple around me knees at the hem. The bodice was intricate with sparkling floral designs woven in. It had a sweetheart neckline with two thin straps running from my shoulders to my back and crossing over my shoulder blades. A silver bow shimmered on the small of my back, the tails falling away from my body. I twirled in the beautiful dress and the fabric spun out around me, my hair flying around in a similar fashion.

My earrings were ones I had "borrowed" from my mother. I didn't really ask first, so I knew I needed to be extra careful with them tonight. They were simple diamond studs. My shoes were strappy silver heels with tiny blossoms on the top strap. I looked myself over in the mirror and squealed. I knew how fabulous I looked. Really, I didn't want to sound conceded or anything, but damn! I looked freaking hot!

As I was admiring myself in the mirror, the doorbell rang. Suddenly, I became all nerves. He was here. Shikamaru had come to pick me up and take me out. Granted, it wasn't our date and we would be with other people, but I couldn't keep of the butterflies from dancing around in my stomach. The feeling was wonderful and horrible at the same time. Wonderful because I felt happy and excited and impatient and giddy, and horrible because I didn't want to feel all these different ways when I was merely hanging out with my friends this evening. Especially since it was Shikamaru who was picking me up at the moment.

I was never able to find a necklace that really fit with the dress well and I was a little disappointed because I'd liked that one at the boutique so much, but I didn't have time to wrestle anything up. I merely grabbed a short-sleeved, cropped, knitted white cardigan and raced to the top of the stairs to see my mother—who had apparently arrived since I had been getting dolled up—open the front door to reveal… a very sexy-looking Shikamaru.

No joke. I wasn't even going to try and beat myself up about that comment. He was all sharp-dressed and everything with a nice pair of black trousers, a white dress shirt that was unbuttoned at the top and very bottom where it was not tucked into his slacks, and a stylish black blazer that was kept open. Of course, it wasn't too formal with like a suit or anything, but that didn't matter because that would've been too dressed up for me anyhow. No, he looked absolutely perfect at the moment, from his signature spiky ponytail to his scuffed, black leather shoes. He was just standing there all nonchalantly, a slightly bored look in his eyes as he leaned back with his hands in his pockets.

I stood there at the top of the stairs, staring. That was it. I was gaping very unattractively like a big, stupid fish, my mouth hanging open and drool probably coming out. I didn't even hear my name the first few times as my mother was calling for me.

"Ino Yamanaka, don't you dare leave this handsome Shikamaru Nara here waiting for you!" She giggled very inappropriately and quite terrifyingly. "If you don't come down, I might have to take him for my—"

"MOM!" Ew. I really did not want to hear the end of that sentence. Luckily her words had snapped me out of my obvious staring.

Stomping down the stairs, I made sure to glare at her as I approached the door. Shikamaru wasn't really paying much attention. He looked kind of nervous and kept glancing down at the hand he had in his right pocket. Actually, I could see that there seemed to be something in there. Maybe his wallet? Oh, he better had not be nervous about having enough money 'cause I would beat him to death! I was expecting the full gentleman approach tonight from all of the build-up we'd been having the day before.

It was all the same that he didn't look at me right away, however. I needed to have a word with my mother who seemed to think that saying really stupid weird shit in front of my date—er—Shikamaru would be okay.

"Mother!" I hissed at her from behind the door. "What the hell?"

"Language, Ino," she retorted, but she obviously didn't mean it. She was busy looking all conniving and sneaky. She was definitely up to something like she had been earlier today at the shop.

I peered at her through narrowed eyes.

"I don't trust you right now. But I have to leave so I'll deal with you later."

"Oh, my love!" she sighed dreamily. "You make it seem as if our roles are reversed right now." She turned back to Shikamaru on the other side of the door once more. "Now, I expect that everything will go off nicely." She gave him an oh so very inconspicuous wink and then scuttled into the kitchen, her blond hair swinging around her shoulders to the rhythm of her silly humming.

I took this chance when she had finally left to step around the door and face Shikamaru at the front entrance.

"Hey," I said, my one word butchered and coming out wavering like I was nervous. Which I was.

Shikamaru finally looked up.

"Oh, hey Ino, I was just—" His words suddenly became lost. His eyes were glued to me and his lips were slightly parted like he was speechless.

Oh God! I really, really hoped that I didn't get eyeliner or lip gloss all over me. Oh no, what if my dress was stuck in my underwear? I tried to inconspicuously feel around the hem, but the dress felt alright, and I could see the reflection of my face in the mirror above the side table next to the door. So what was wrong?

"Uh, Shika-kun?" I whispered, silently slapping myself for using my nickname for him at a time like this. "Is there something, uh, something wrong with my dress? Or something on my face?"

Shikamaru seemed to remember that I was staring at him staring at me and flushed deeply, turning away and averting his gaze toward the stars outside.

"I, er, um, no I, well," he took a breath to steady his shaky voice. I could feel my face burning with embarrassment, but he looked embarrassed too, so I tried to calm myself down. "You look…beautiful." He brought his eyes back to mine and stared at me so intensely that I felt my knees start to buckle beneath me.

I was completely shocked and surprised. I was pretty sure I quit breathing for a minute and I could feel my heart beats become erratic and spontaneous. This was stupid, I shouldn't have been acting this way in front of him. I felt like a total spaz and slightly stalker-ish. Oh God, I was going to turn out like my mother when I was older! I tried to keep my mind on subject and finally responded to Shikamaru.

"Thank y-you," I stuttered like an idiot. "You look…" Insanely hot, absolutely gorgeous, fantastically fine. "…good." Wow. Even I wanted to punch me in the face for something that stupid. I needed to get my brain checked.

He smirked at my comment and I stepped aside to let him into the house. The door had been wide open the whole time we'd been mumbling to each other and I was being rude just making him stand out there. As we walked toward the sitting room to talk for a minute before leaving, I saw his knuckles turn white has he clenched his hand into a fist, fingering whatever was still in his pocket. We sat down and I was just about to question him about whatever he was stressing over when he opened his coat pocket and took out a long, rectangular box. Before I could say anything about this new development, he shoved the box at me.

"I got this for you because I knew you wanted it." I looked at him questioningly. "Open it," he suggested.

I obliged happily, loving that he got me a surprise present but also a little guilty that I never got him anything. I slowly lifted the top off the box to stare at the glittering beauty of the jewel encrusted necklace I had been yearning for at the boutique yesterday. Despite all of my preparations for tonight, I could feel myself melting as I looked at the lovely gift he was bestowing on me.

"Oh my God!" I breathed, staring at the piece of jewelry with awe. I turned my gaze to him, my eyes watering with joy. He was looking at my face carefully, as if trying to gauge my reaction. His cheeks turned pink when I caught him staring at me. "Thank you so much, Shikamaru!" I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him in a hug. And all of the sudden, the strange electricity from yesterday came back, pulsating through me a thousand times stronger than ever before.

I wondered to myself if he could feel it.

We parted slowly, both feeling slightly awkward and flustered, but I was burning with curiosity to know if he felt the same as I did.

"Will you—" I hesitated before asking the full question. "Will you put it on me?" I was nervous and my hands were shaking, but I really wanted him to be the one to fasten the necklace around my neck.

He didn't say anything, which was a little intimidating, but he nodded and plucked the beautiful piece of jewelry from the box, hooking the clasp at the nape of my neck. I couldn't see very well what it looked like with my dress, but I didn't need to. I already knew that it was perfect.

"Well, I guess we should go then." I took a deep breath and exhaled, hoisting myself from the floral-patterned couch and standing up. I reached out for Shikamaru's hand and helped pull him up as well.

"Before that, though," he interjected, "I have something else for you as well."

"Wait, what?" I felt so horribly rude right now. "You got me the necklace and something else?"

"I needed help with this one, so your mother lent me a hand at the shop."

The sneaky bastards! No wonder she had sent me out and was acting all dumb and suspicious this whole night.

He finally pulled out whatever had been in his pocket. It was a clear plastic box. With something purple inside. He took off the lid for me and showed me the contents of the container. Inside, I saw the most beautiful present I'd ever laid eyes on. But that wasn't even the best part. A few tears trickled down my cheeks and I brushed them off, grinning widely at the most wonderfully special thing someone had done for me. It was a wrist corsage intricately woven from purple irises.

I tackled Shikamaru with another hug.

AN: Well, there you go, my dear lovelies. Hopefully I can get Shikamaru's point of view of part of the date up tomorrow. I tried to drag it out just for all of the hopeless romantics out there like myself. I just thought it would be sweet if he thought about her enough to get her a corsage of her favorite flowers. That he would think about her so much just for this little not-actually-a-date thing. But hey, who are we to complain? I'm sure I would be giddy with joy as well. Screw that it's not really a date, that kind of technicality doesn't matter in fantasy fan fiction land! Yeah, well, I like it, so maybe you guys will too? Tell me what you think because I enjoy hearing it.

~Kara


	5. Chapter 4

AN: Sorry I couldn't get anything out sooner. I was going to try and put out another chapter at that time, but it was very late and I had school in the morning. But here it is. Hope you all like it. Also, I'm throwing some NaruSaku in there because they're my other favorite Naruto couple.

~Kara

Chapter Four

Shikamaru's POV

We walked along the sidewalk after exiting Ino's house, her arm looped through mine. After she had gotten off of me following her monster of a hug, we both were a little flustered and uncomfortable. It was such a blatant display of affection. Her mother had rushed in to see us off and croon over the gifts she had already known I'd be giving Ino. But of course the false surprise was appreciated. I knew I wasn't fooling her daughter, but the astonished look on Ino's face and her spectacular reaction had been worth all of the awkward tension afterward. Luckily, Ino's father was out for the night and I didn't have to deal with that, especially because this wasn't supposed to be a real date and I knew Ino and I'd both cringe in aversion to any "man to man" talks and the likes.

We had finally been given the opportunity to escape before Mrs. Yamanaka took pictures, however, when the phone rang, Sakura's mother calling on the phone excited over the fact that the two girls would be going on a "double date" together. Ino had looked like she wanted to hit herself in the head with the telephone until she was unconscious, but took her mother's conversation as an excuse to leave the house. We'd made it out into the crisp night, the excitement of the evening's festivities opening before us.

Her face was glowing with happiness and excitement, her smile a beacon of light in the darkness of the night. She noticed me staring at her and raised a brow. I gave her an easy grin and she smiled at me once again, tightening her grip on my arm. I liked the feel of her small hands clutching onto me in that way. She felt warm and inviting, making me want to bring her even closer to me. But I didn't. I didn't want to cross that line with her, step past the invisible barrier keeping us in our proper places concerning one another.

I was scared. I didn't know what would happen if we ever tried to push our relationship farther than an intricate friendship. I mean, sure I'd thought about what it would be like if Ino and I were, well… _together_. How could I not when she had turned into such a strong, passionate, beautiful young woman? She was going to turn eighteen in a couple of weeks, and I was always afraid that she'd leave Konoha behind to go seek fortune somewhere else. I knew that if there was ever a time to make some sort of move, that the time would need to be very soon. But the thought was so foreign and strange, frightening when I knew nothing about what would lie ahead. And being with Ino as a teammate already made life a battle for me. Anything else would make me crazy, I was sure.

My mind was spinning with confusion about the situation. Of course, I had already gotten her the necklace, and giving her the iris corsage was a last minute idea that I quickly had to call her mother about and discuss. I had to go to the shop at a specific time that Mrs. Yamanaka had told me so that I wouldn't be there when Ino was still working. And I was pretty sure that hadn't gone over well. Ino caught on to those kinds of plans pretty quickly.

The matter of actually going to the shop and having Ino's mother help me with picking out something for her daughter was a whole different situation. I had to sit there and have her lecture to me over and over that I was so polite in the way that I actually had Ino's interests at heart seeing that I was doing all of this for her. She kept comparing me to all of Ino's past boyfriends, talking about every flaw and mistake that had ruptured the relationships they'd had with the same girl. That had been sufficiently awkward. Mostly because I was pretty sure that Mrs. Yamanaka thought that Ino and I were actually dating and that I was professing my love to her tonight or something.

I shivered a bit and Ino looked up at me again.

"You okay?" she asked, her brows pulled together in worry.

"Uh, yeah," I responded stupidly. "It's just, um, kinda chilly out here and stuff." Idiot.

"Oh."

We continued to walk toward the restaurant where we would meet up with Sakura and Naruto. I still couldn't understand how the imbecile had finally managed to get the pink-haired shinobi to go out with him, but I figured that she was just exhausted from trying to fend off his advances. She was probably going to give it a shot just so she could say she tried and then move on to someone less… _Naruto_. I really didn't understand how he could harbor feelings for her for so long without the chance of them being returned, especially when Hinata had been so willing in the past to be with him. But I guess people can't tell their hearts who to love. Anyway, Hinata and Kiba were perfectly happy together anyway.

I tried to keep myself from shivering again. They were always together, being all lovey-dovey and downright nauseating. He seemed to take her anywhere she wanted to go, listening to her every whim and obeying her every command. I found that sort of obedience kind of sick, revolting in the way that she probably would never give him the sort of attention he seemed to shower upon her. I was sure that Kiba would never find Hinata hanging on his every word if she were in his place.

Of course, the situation wasn't reversed and Hinata probably didn't have many requests anyhow. She was much too polite. But the same principle still applied. Kiba was acting like a dog—no pun intended—with the way he treated her. Really, I thought he had a little more pride than that, but Hinata really had that boy whipped.

I snickered quietly under my breath at the thought.

"What's so funny?" Ino asked, brow raised.

Shit. I probably looked real smart, what with laughing to myself and all. She probably thought I was psychotic or something.

"Uh—" I really needed to figure out a better way to begin my sentences "—just thinking about the way Kiba acts around Hinata. It's kind of disturbing."

Her eyebrows furrowed again like they had at my previous remark. I decided to elaborate

"You know, he acts like a lost puppy the way he follows her around. I mean, we already knew he had a tendency to be dog-like, what with Akamaru and all, but really," I said, trying to lighten the suddenly tense atmosphere while also trying to get her to see my point, "it's kinda weird the way he is with her."

Now Ino looked kind of miffed, and a bad feeling started to prickle the back of my neck.

"Why? What's wrong with him being so devoted?"

"It's not that his being devoted his bad, per se." I was trying to do damage control. I knew I had said something wrong and that she was going to start yelling and I would have to listen to her rant about my insensitivity to women. Damn. And I had been thinking about starting a relationship with her all but five minutes ago. "He just gets all girly and sappy around her, saying and doing stuff that any normal guy would be ashamed of."

Her irritation seemed to have morphed into anger by now and she dropped my arm as she turned completely to look at me. We stopped walking, staring at each other in the middle of the sidewalk late in the evening. I wasn't sure if it would be wise to start fighting like this in public, but the few people that were out tonight decided to give us a wide berth. I thought this wise on their parts.

"And is it so wrong for him to want to do things with her? To go out and be with each other?" Her hands were balled into fists at her sides and her face began to turn red around her nose and cheeks.

I really didn't want to have a fight, especially because I had no idea why this was turning into a fight. I mean, Ino had broken down the day before and complained about the fact that all we did was fight, but half of the time I wasn't even aware that what I said to her was rude. I had a bad habit of putting my foot in my mouth when I spoke, and Ino's personality was just so damned abrasive that she could probably take anything anyone said and twist it to mean something appalling and offensive.

She was still ranting when I tuned back into reality.

"Why is it that guys only see romantic gestures and displays of love as being wimpy or girly or….or being a pussy?" I winced at her terminology but her words had begun to get under my skin.

"Not everything is like that Ino," I interjected, interrupting her tirade and blowing off the anger that was beginning to get to me as well. "Why do guys have to do everything to get a girl to notice their feelings? I mean, why should we have to do a bunch of romantic shit just so we can have someone step all over our emotions?"

"I don't see how that matters for you," she growled, pointing her manicured finger at my chest. "I mean, you obviously would go out of your way to shower the girl you love with gifts and affection."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I was getting very uncomfortable with where this conversation was heading. I wanted to steer clear of this topic, but she continued to prod where I didn't want anyone to go. "You're not making any sense."

"_I'm_ not making any sense?" She sounded incredulous and slightly amused, but that same angry undertone never left her voice. Her words were loud and she shouted them in my face to try and prove her point. "That's real funny because I seem to recall the fact that you got me two really nice gifts tonight that obviously took thinking about and you agreed to come with me as my date just because I asked you. You're trying to make excuses for the male species you belong to when you're contradicting yourself with your actions!" She threw her hands up and looked at me with complete and utter frustration. "And we're not even together!"

I opened my mouth to give her a cutting and witty response, but nothing came out and I was left there to look like a fool in front of her with no way to defend myself. The fact was, she was right for once. I had done all of those nice things for her without the hope of any sort of compensation. Of course, my initial reasoning for my actions had been that she was one of my closest friends and that I wanted her to be happy. That this would give me some sort of hold over her that would leave her indebted to me in the future. After buying the necklace for her yesterday and the corsage for her today, however, that line of thinking had gone down the crapper. I knew what I was secretly hoping for. But I continued to push it back to the recesses of my mind.

The truth was, some small part of me—or large part depending on whether I was really ready to admit it or not—wanted to start a romantic relationship with Ino. She was beautiful, no matter what she was wearing or how much make up she put on, she was full of life in the way that I could always see passion and adventure burning in her gaze, she was so damn argumentative but that wasn't necessarily bad because every time we fought she made me start to think from a different point of view, and her problems and interests were always so petty and normal. But I considered this last thing a good trait as well. She grounded me, kept me hanging on to the real world when I felt I would slip away, off into the sky along with the clouds that I loved to watch.

And yet I knew that I would probably never be with her. Not in the sense that I kind of hoped I could be. I mean, simply put, she was just too good for me. She wasn't the lazy-ass, proud, insensitive, complaining jerk that I knew I could be at times. We were just too opposite. I know that the saying "opposites attract" is popular and all that, but we were as far apart on the spectrum as two people could get. It was ridiculous really. I wasn't sure how we had kept a friendship going for so long, but then again, we fought on a daily basis. Actually, it was more like a tri-daily basis, as when we were together, we were likely to fight more than once about completely absurd topics that no one else could even begin to be bothered with.

I may have thought I wanted her at times, but I also knew that a relationship between us just wouldn't work out. And knowing this prematurely was better than getting into something that would just end badly in the future. I really didn't have any way of knowing what her feelings were for me, but even if they were similar to mine, she had probably come to the same conclusion as me. She was no rocket scientist, but Ino was also anything but an idiot. She knew more about trivial, people-related topics than I could ever hope to grasp. Another reason that I sometimes felt myself longing for her. But I had to push those emotions aside. Really, this would all turn out for the best in the end. We were on the same team, and we couldn't have relationship problems getting in our way as shinobi. At least, I was aware that we had to make a sacrifice for this reason. And eventually, I knew she would figure it out if she hadn't done so already.

I finally looked back at Ino. Her earlier boiling hot anger had softened into concern and confusion, mild aversion also clear in the set of her brows and the shape of her mouth.

"You're right," I told her, sticking my hands in my pockets and beginning to walk toward the restaurant once more. I wasn't sure how long this particular argument had lasted, but I was certain that we needed to hurry if we didn't want Sakura to start nagging us about tardiness if we got there late.

I didn't feel Ino's presence beside me for a short while as I walked along the slightly damp dirt road. It hadn't rained in a while, but there was plenty of wet earth under my feet, be it from cleaning and washing, or kids playing in the streets. The sky was a deep blue overhead, so dark that the hue was nearly black. The stars were mere pinpricks of light that surrounded the large, fluorescent moon, shining bright white against the shadow of the sky. The large, hovering sphere glowed so fiercely that I easily found my way across town. Crickets chirped loudly, singing a melody of nighttime around me. I wasn't sure why I was chastised so often for zoning out to watch nature come to life around me. In fact, shouldn't I have been handed some sort of Medal of Honor for noticing the beauty and pleasure in the simple things around me? Obviously the world had a sick sense of irony attached to all of the teachings people preached to vain individuals.

After a few moments, Ino jogged up beside me, falling into the easy rhythm of my steps as she continued to walk by my side. Apparently my simple agreement to her statement had caused her brain to momentarily malfunction. We walked together silently for a while, and I stole a glance at her only to notice the pensive expression on her face. She obviously had no idea as to the thought process behind my simple concession.

"Did you… did you actually say that I was right?" she finally managed to ask, bewilderment clear in her voice.

"Yep." That was my simple answer. There was no need to elaborate.

"But—but why?" She had an almost pleading look on her face, as if she were crippled with the fact that she didn't know the reasons behind why I'd agreed with her.

"Because…" I was searching for a simple way to tell her without getting into all of the dramatic issues that I'd come to resolve in my mind. If she didn't already guess my direction of thought, then I didn't want to just hand all of that information out freely. I'd be completely embarrassed if she were to ever find out about all of that girly, emotional shit I'd just been contemplating. "…because it's true," I finally managed to say. "I don't want to be a hypocrite and everything you said was completely accurate."

I wanted to leave the discussion at that, but no, Ino had to continue to prod the dead subject until she got a little more data that she could mull over and possibly gossip about to Sakura in a little while during the "date."

"Why would you have made the argument in the first place, then, if you were only going to contradict yourself and give in?" Triumph reflected in her azure eyes, but a hint of suspicion also lingered. My expression tightened.

"Watch it, Ino," I warned, trying to brush off her nudge.

"No, I want to know why you think that you can do nice stuff for me, but that it's unmanly for other guys."

I sighed. "Ino—"

"Maybe… No, that's not your style." Her words were ominous and now she had gotten me curious about what she had begun to think.

"What?" I asked, watching her through narrowed eyes.

"Well, I know that you've got a slight god complex." She must've noticed my expression because she tried to smooth over her sentence. "Not like _some_ people we know, but, well, is it because you think you're above being held to those kinds of standards?" She didn't sound reprimanding at all; merely intrigued.

"Listen, can we just drop—"

She continued to speak as if I were a walking tree that didn't say anything at all.

"But then, why would you have bought me the gifts and taken me out tonight in the first place?" I could feel my balled fists begin to shake, my nails digging into the soft flesh of my palms. She was beginning to drift into the areas of conversation that I wanted to cover and hide. "Is it because you…"

She drifted off for a little while, her face scrunched with thought and confusion. At the same time, I could see the lights of the restaurant looming in the distance. I prayed that we would make it over there before she delved any deeper into the repressed secrets that had been haunting my thoughts for a while now. I picked up my pace and she struggled visibly to keep up and prolong her thoughts at the same time.

"Could it be because you want to…" The pieces were beginning to form together in her mind, but a blockade of rational thought was barring her from true comprehension.

I just knew it. I knew that she would never have thought of us together like I had. She would have never even imagined the possibility. Nobody would. It was ridiculous.

We were almost there. I could clearly see two people standing apart from the crowd in front, a spiky-haired blond boy and a rosy-haired kunoichi. I hoped that the pair had been proactive enough to get reservations in advance. I wasn't sure that the knuckled-headed ninja would have the brain power to come up with that kind of insight, but I knew that Sakura never overlooked anything.

Only a few more feet to go, now. I would make it. Ino would drop her line of thought so she could giggle over some stupid, troublesome gossip that she and Sakura just _had_ to catch up on, what with women having the urge to spew nonsense to each other and whatnot. I was in the clear. We would start the evening without her ever knowing that I had been thinking about—

"Oh!" Ino's sudden intake of breath had caused me to jump, effectively jostling me from my hopes for the moment. She looked up at me with wide, disbelieving eyes, her mouth slightly agape.

Fuck. She knew.

But now we couldn't discuss it because my prediction about the two girl's reunion was exactly how I expected. No, I would have to sweat it out until the end of the night to figure out if I was going to be torn apart by her speculations and comments. I would have to live in fear of her reaction to my deranged thoughts for several long, excruciating hours. And I didn't know what to say or how to behave.

I tried my best to greet Naruto in a friendly, non-threatening way, but the guy was just not the epitome of an ideal friend. I mean, sure, I wasn't downright mean to him or anything, but we were never in the same circle of people. He was really out there. He was obviously obsessive compulsive, to the point where I worried over the safety of himself and the people around him, and he was so overly energetic, constantly causing me migraines with the way that he bounced around when he walked and couldn't stay on one topic for more than half a second unless it revolved around fighting or ramen. Ugh, how I had come to detest ramen after spending time with Naruto.

"We should go inside," Sakura finally suggested, saving me from another minute of talking to the blond male.

I let out a relieved breath and followed after the others into the restaurant. I tried to look at the scenery, the vivid décor that seemed to be oozing from the walls of the eatery, but that didn't help with the sense that Ino was sending nervous glances my way. I continued to focus my attention elsewhere, taking in the cozy atmosphere of the restaurant. It was called _Debonair_ and was decorated in a dark, modern type of style. The furniture and embellishments were all different primary shapes, ranging in shades from dark brown to red to burnt orange. The lighting was dim and personal, the music softly thumping through out the building, a gentle rhythm that buzzed pleasantly through my body.

Sakura briefly spoke to the host standing at the podium. He quickly turned and began leading us toward a secluded booth in the very back of the establishment and I breathed another sigh of relief. At least someone had been thoughtful enough to call in a reservation before-hand. I would bet money that somebody wasn't Naruto. We all sat down at the comfortably large table, Naruto sliding in next to Sakura and me sitting down next to Ino. The girls continued to chatter on about everything I didn't care about—makeup, clothes, girls, boys—and I sized up Naruto, deciding on whether or not I wanted to even strike up a conversation with him.

One look at the guy gave me a clear and definite _no_. He was too busy sulking about the fact that Sakura had given all of her attention to Ino. Well, that was too bad for him, but also turned out to be a terrific turn of events for myself. If Sakura kept Ino busy, then I wouldn't have to sit and wait for her to bring up the almost-talk that we'd had before meeting up with the other pair. I would just have to find some way to keep Ino busy before she could bring that subject up, and maybe, if I was lucky, she might even forget what we were talking about altogether. Women were like that, being all serious and insightful at one moment, and then becoming completely oblivious to the world the next.

I tried not to act to frivolous with the knowledge that I might get away with not speaking to Ino scot-free, for I really didn't want another reason for her, or anyone else for that matter, to become even more suspicious of me. As a waiter came over to our table to take our orders for what we wanted to drink, I ordered an ice water and Ino selected an iced tea. I grinned knowingly the whole time, thinking about how I would evade the inevitable.

I should've known better.

While he was taking orders for Naruto's and Sakura's drinks, Ino leaned in to me and whispered something in my ear.

"Shikamaru," she hissed through her teeth, voice serious and stern. "You and I need to have a talk later tonight."

Double fuck.

AN: It's a bit shorter than the previous chapter, but I hope you still like it. Thank you to all of my lovely readers who have stuck with me thus far. It is only just beginning, my sparkling ShikaIno fic. I hope that you are all satisfied with my style of writing and the direction of the story. For we all know that these are just the fluffy lovey chapters until we get to the hardcore plot line that is inevitable and depressing. I know, this is the fun stuff. But I hope you will stick through the rest because I will not give up on these two star-crossed lovers! NEVER!

Love always,

~Kara


	6. Chapter 5

AN: Well, what can I say? Sorry but my real life happened? I guess that's the truth. Anyway, I really didn't want to be absent for this long and I know I kind of left you guys hanging, but there were things that cropped up. I've had to deal with the musical, college applications and scholarships, we found my kitty's body a couple days ago and I've been really upset about that, and school's torture. I'm so glad it'll be over soon and the beautiful summer will begin. Please enjoy this long overdue chapter of How A Heart Endures!

~Kara

P.S. I'm giving a warning that there is going to be some Sasuke-bashing in this chapter. Sorry for Sasuke fans. I'm sure everyone knows how I feel about him (or they will soon) and I apologize if that bothers you. Not gonna change my opinion. Still, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter Five

Ino's POV

I walked along the sidewalk, Shikamaru keeping pace next to me. The stars were brilliant overhead and the moon was glowing brightly, lighting up our path. The air was decently warm, my white, cropped cardigan draped over my arm as we found our way back toward my house. Tonight had been fairly pleasant. Of course, there were the awkward moments and the periods of time when I thought I wanted to either die or kill somebody. But I made it through. And Shikamaru was walking beside me after having offered to take me home.

Since yesterday, my feelings had been really jumbled up for him. But tonight, I felt like I had come to a conclusion: I was pretty sure I liked Shikamaru Nara. Maybe even more than liked. Damn. I felt like my brain had fallen out every time I thought about this realization.

"Thanks."

I jumped about a foot in the air hearing Shikamaru's voice after the drawn out silence. He stopped and looked at me.

"Shit, you startled me," I gasped, taking a couple deep breaths as we continued walking. "By the way, what did you mean when you said 'thanks'?" I asked, looking at him in confusion.

He gave a dramatic sigh and rolled his eyes. I used all of my will power to resist the urge to punch him. "Are you really going to make me say it?" he grumbled.

"Shikamaru…" I growled in a warning tone.

"Fine! I'm glad you asked me to come with you tonight," he confessed. "I had a lot of fun…" His words trailed off and he became quiet.

A big smile grew on my face. "Well there ya go!" I cheered, thumping him hard on the back. "Everyone needs a cut loose a little, sometimes."

On the inside, however, my body was shivering hot and cold. I wanted to sing (which was a bad idea in and of itself), dance, and shout "hooray!" to the hilltops.

But I settled for smiling broadly and teasing Shikamaru. This continued the whole way home. I would give a slightly berating comment, Shikamaru would go crazy, and I would laugh like a freaking hyena the whole time. I was enjoying myself, but honestly, I would have rather been under his arm or holding his hand, reminiscing about how silly we had behaved on our first date.

And silly we were, believe me. When we had first walked up to the restaurant, I had taken note of both Sakura and her ADHD date who were both waiting for us outside of the restaurant. Before entering, I had noted her appearance. Her pink hair was pulled into a loose ponytail that was arbitrarily placed in front of her left shoulder. She had grown her hair out these past few years. Of course it was nowhere near the extent of my own waist-length locks, but it was still several inches past her narrow shoulders. It looked as if she hadn't given the ponytail much thought. But Lord knows that when a girls' hair looks that way, in all actuality the hairstyle probably took her hours to accomplish.

As for the rest of her exterior, she was wearing a knee-length, green dress that was several shades richer and darker than her eyes. The emerald fabric gathered at the bust and then floated away from her body from the seaming of the Empire waist. It had a thin, braided green strap maneuvering over each shoulder and tiny bows where they met with the rest of the material in front. Over her dress she wore a cropped, black denim jacket with sleeves that ended at her elbows. I was completely envious of her shiny, simple black stilettos. I held back, however, because I knew why she had gotten all dressed up in the first place. The reason was obvious in her stance.

She had been standing with her date, facing him and looking down nervously at her awesome shoes. I had never seen her look so timid before, not even with that rogue douchebag, Sasuke Uchiha. Heaven knew she finally needed an excuse to quit fawning over that asshole. It was a good thing I stopped pretending to like him several years ago. Man, we were both stupid to fall for that piece of shit.

In the crook of her elbow she had been carrying the bouquet "Naruto" had bought for her earlier, and I had noticed a faint pink tint to her cheeks that seemed to match her hair. I decided that I would keep the payment of that bouquet a secret from her. I didn't want to spoil her happiness. A small smile had tugged at her lips and her eyes had looked slightly dazed, as if she wasn't really aware of mine and Shikamaru's presence. She was completely absorbed in Naruto Uzumaki.

Speaking of the blond-haired, obsessive-compulsive ninja, he had been watching her with awe in his eyes. He was obviously overjoyed that he had finally gotten a date with the stubborn kunoichi. He had looked at her with such care and obvious affection that there were no doubts of his feelings at that point. I would have to give him a break for the flowers the next time I got the chance. Clearly he had wanted to surprise her and try to get her to see that there was an observant, speculative, devoted guy underneath all of the…well, OCD, ADD spaz.

Further proof was his style of dress. He wasn't wearing his usual orange sweat suit. He was actually wearing something tasteful! Incidentally, I couldn't stop myself from noting his obvious attractiveness. Completely from an objective point of view, I will add!

He wore a silky black button-up shirt, sleeves rolled neatly to the elbows and top buttons undone. Thankfully he had the good sense to leave the shirt untucked, as well. He wore a pair of slim-fitting black jeans that made his lean legs look really long—or it might've been just been because he'd gotten a lot taller recently—and a pair of well-worn black Converse All-Stars.

Sakura was lucky that the boy cleaned up very nicely.

After that we had gone into the restaurant and our little escapade began. Sakura seemed to be talking about a new technique that the old bag—I mean Lady Tsunade—was teaching her.

"So, using my healing chakra, I take my hands and place them on the damaged part of the skin and then—Ino, are you even listening to me?" Sakura stared at me intently, her jade green eyes boring into my own startled gaze. I wasn't expecting her to address me so directly. "Are you okay? You don't look too good."

"Uh, what?" I replied unthinkingly. I was acting strangely and I knew that Sakura could tell. I mean, that's what best friends did: they noticed when something was wrong almost as soon as the situation arose. Maybe even sooner, sometimes. "Sorry, I'm just a little…anxious. About how tonight will go. And stuff."

I knew she could easily see through my flimsy excuse, but I certainly couldn't just unload all of my emotions and problems onto her in public. On her first date with the idiot—I mean Naruto—nonetheless! Besides, I had caught Shikamaru's eyes flash over toward me and I would not under any circumstances divulge information of that nature in his presence. It all had to do with him, basically.

"Hmm." Sakura raised her thin pink brows suspiciously and leaned forward on the table, resting her weight on her elbows. "I see. Well, I guess we'll talk about this 'stuff' sometime further into the night." She flicked her gaze toward the prying eyes of the boys and then turned back to me, mumbling so only I could hear. "I know something's up, and I also know that you'll have to spill about it eventually."

My own eyebrows pulled low over my eyes in irritation.

"I'm not trying to withhold any information, Sakura," I grumbled, a bit annoyed at her accusation that I was trying to hide something from her. "It's just that we're surrounded by witnesses that have no business listening in on that kind of conversation." My eyes automatically drifted toward a grumpy Shikamaru. "And besides—" I leaned away from Sakura and put a big, fake smile on my face, speaking obnoxiously at full volume "—I want you to enjoy your date with the imbecile—er, Naruto. So let's get back to the dinner and such." I pretended to decipher the items on the menu in front of me. "Where is that waiter of ours, anyhow? Didn't we order drinks, like, a hundred years ago, or something?"

As if on cue, the man that had taken our orders for beverages appeared from the door leading to the restaurant's kitchen, a tray of liquid-filled glasses balanced on one of his hands.

"Here you are, ladies and gentlemen." He handed each of us our appropriate drinks. "Sorry about the wait," he apologized, looking directly into my eyes with a seductive pout.

And the flirting commenced.

"Can I get your food orders, then?" He shot me a dazzling white smile, shaking his deep chestnut hair to keep it from falling over the rectangular glasses that sat in front of his deep green eyes.

Shikamaru seemed to stiffen suddenly beside me. He glared down at the table. I could see his fists clenched tightly on his thighs. What the hell was his problem?

Ignoring the strange behavior of my "date," I leaned over him across the table and smiled politely at the waiter whose name I didn't really care to remember when he had first introduced himself to all of us.

"I'll have the grilled chicken breast."

He beamed cheerfully at me and began to scribble what I said down onto his notepad.

"Excellent choice! Seems like you have fine tastes." He glanced suggestively at me from above the pad of paper he was writing on.

The tension continued to roll off of Shikamaru in nearly tangible masses. I didn't know what to think for a moment before my subconscious replied with a demented answer.

He's jealous.

Well, maybe that wasn't too demented after all. Maybe I was judging the situation a bit harshly. I mean, didn't he nearly admit to me earlier that he had begun to have ideas of us together as a couple?

I felt goose bumps beginning to rise on my bare arms and suppressed a shiver that tried to race up and down my spine.

Had he really been thinking about us in that way? Or did I just jump to a conclusion that my brain thought I wanted to hear? Because truth be told—if I was actually deciding to tell myself the truth from now on—the idea of him thinking of me that way actually made me feel…giddy. And in a good way, too. Giddy in the sense that I felt excited and out of breath and happy. Because I knew I had definitely thought about us in that way as well. I was just much too stubborn to admit my own feelings.

As a matter of fact, I wasn't exactly sure what I felt for Shikamaru, mostly because I had been blocking my thoughts from entering that territory for the longest time. But lately, I wanted to be with him every chance that I could. I wanted him next to me, no matter what I was doing or what the pretense seemed to be. Being around him made me light up like I was the star on top of a Christmas tree. He brought out the sun within me.

That realization slammed into me hard as I fell back against the red leather booth seat in shocked comprehension. Luckily the annoyingly flirtatious waiter was busy taking orders for everyone else at the table. I had a few seconds to myself to try and piece together the emotions churning wildly inside of me.

Did he really feel the same way about me as I did about him? I had been ignoring these rampant feelings for so long that I couldn't fully process what they were, but I knew that I wanted him with me. I knew that I cared what he thought about me. I knew that the idea of him liking me in that particular way made my heart beat enthusiastically with abundant joy.

Love might have been too strong a word for the current situation, but I had a feeling that if given enough time under the right circumstances, I would probably fall head over heels for my lazy, rude, completely unsuitable teammate. The same teammate who I just happened to think would be my perfect fit. At least, that was what my intuition was telling me for now.

A rush of excitement overcame me and I felt my cheeks flush with a new determination.

Sakura seemed to notice the change in me at the same time that I realized my blush was probably visible. The waiter had gone and now we all sat at the table silently, each left to our own thoughts.

"Um, Ino?" she asked, hesitating to say something in front of the guys. "Your face is, um, slightly rosy?" Why was she saying it like a question? Obviously I was blushing profusely. Thanks for the update, Sherlock Holmes. As if I wasn't already aware that I looked like a red-faced fool. "Do you have a fever or something?"

Only the fever of love!

But of course I didn't say that out loud. Everybody already thought I needed to be put on medication. No need to alarm them any further.

"Ah, no!" My eyes darted frantically around the area encompassing our booth, desperately looking for an excuse as to my colored face. "I, uh, I am just a little, er, warm. Yeah, that's it! It's, ah, a bit hot in here." I pretended to fan myself with my unrolled napkin, dragging the back of my hand across my forehead dramatically.

Everyone looked at me with raised eyebrows, Naruto with concern for my mental health—which seemed a bit hypocritical to me—and Shikamaru with a bit of irritation that I assumed was from the waiter's visit. Sakura didn't look as if she bought my bullshit excuse for a second. But being the terrific bestie that she was, she didn't let onto her knowledge and played along.

"Yes!" she agreed profusely. "They must have cranked the heat to, like, a bajillion degrees, or something." She smiled radiantly at me and I watched as Naruto looked back and forth between us as if Sakura had caught the crazy from me. "Actually," she surmised, standing up, "I need to use the ladies' room, if no one minds."

Naruto stood to let Sakura out from their seat and his face grew even more depressed. Poor guy. He had been looking forward to this evening for a very long time. I was going to have to leave them to it at some point in the night, but in the mean time, I stood and swatted at Shikamaru's shoulder to get his attention.

"What?" he responded, a slight tinge of hostility in his voice.

I crossed my arms and looked at him in irritation.

"Do you have to be so freaking rude all of the time, Shikamaru?" I griped, managing to tap my foot even in my uncomfortable standing position behind the table. "Jesus."

"Well what do you want?" His tone had calmed, and as he looked at me, a softness seemed to take the edge off of his expression.

"I need to follow Sakura to the bathroom, duh." He gave me a blank stare. "So it'd be kind of helpful if you moved out of the way first?" I suggested, raising my eyebrows at him as a hint to the meaning of my words.

He didn't seem to understand, however, thus proving my theory that all guys were morons, even when they were geniuses.

"Why?" he questioned, his own brows furrowing as he glanced at me suspiciously. "Why do you both need to go? Is it just so you can go chat that waiter up again?"

I looked at him with agitation.

"I saw the way he was flirting with you when he took our orders." No shit, you'd have to be blind not to notice that. And even then you'd probably still hear it.

He lowered his eyebrows angrily. And then I understood what he meant. He thought I actually had the hots for that dickhead. A red flush crept across my face. In my peripheral vision, I could see Naruto and Sakura exchange anxious glances with each other before continuing to watch us with concern.

A blinding white-hot fury overtook me after that and the next several seconds were a complete blank for me as a loud roaring thundered in my ears. My vision turned red and then I couldn't see anything.

A loud slap reverberated through out the restaurant, echoing off of the walls and causing the entire building to become silent for a few moments. My sight returned and I found most of the other patrons in the building looking in our direction. My gaze traveled down to see Shikamaru's horror-stricken face…and the bright red hand print now decorating his burning cheek. His hand quickly shot up to stroke the mark and he flinched in pain at the touch. His eyes flicked up to me and widened in shock. He obviously couldn't believe what had just happened.

Of course not. Again, all guys were morons. But I knew that my first reaction to his racy comment had been one of pure anger. Served him right for thinking so lowly of me. And somehow I thought he was smarter than that! I was going to have to rethink my choice of wanting to be with him. I mean, after all, I couldn't let him slide with that kind of crap forever.

"Now," I began again, bending down to look directly into his narrowed eyes. He cringed away a bit from my presence, but seemed to give me more credit. "I want you to move aside so I can escort Sakura to the bathroom."

He continued to stare at me like he had before. Only this time it seemed as though he couldn't hear me instead of acting incredulous to my request.

"You know, girl code, you dipshit." I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I was going to have to break this down for him. Obviously that smack to the face had thrown him for a loop. "Girls always travel in packs, girls always lie about their friends not being fat, and girls never go to the bathroom alone?" I ticked all of those off on my fingers. "Remember those Golden Rules of Friendship?"

He still didn't seem to catch the meaning to my words, but at least this time he moved out of the way so I could get out of the booth.

"Thanks, Shika-kun!" I gave him a sickly sweet smile and grabbed Sakura's arm. She was still glued to her spot next to Naruto's seat, both of them watching us like a car accident: they didn't want to look, but they couldn't seem to turn away. "We'll be back in a bit, boys!" I called over my shoulder as I ushered my friend and myself toward the sign for the restroom.

As we headed away from the table, I heard Naruto whispering—quite loudly and ineffectively—to Shikamaru.

"Shikarmaru," he hissed, "even I knew about the girl code! What's up with you, man?"

I could almost imagine Shikamaru shaking his head at that and stroking his hurt cheek again.

"Troublesome women," he muttered. Ah, well that was typical.

As Sakura and I neared the hallway for the restrooms, I paused and looked around. No one was in the vicinity. Good. That meant less witnesses and eavesdroppers to spy on the insane conversation I knew we were about to have. After we had both left the boys at the table, the noise in the restaurant had returned to normal, everyone momentarily trying to forget the scene I had caused with Shikamaru. This turned out to be a pretty good thing considering everybody was minding their own business again. Hopefully it would stay that way.

As I continued to scout for any followers who might've wanted a follow-up as to what had taken place a couple minutes ago, Sakura yanked me from my post at the hallway entrance by the back collar of my cardigan, dragging me into the bathroom behind her. I was a bit shocked as to her new determination of talking with me, relieved also to know that she finally seemed to have snapped out of her daze.

She sped around the women's room peeking under the stalls for any signs of other people in the area. Satisfied that no one else was in the restroom besides us, she scurried to the door and quickly turned the lock shut. Now I knew she was serious. The whole time she was flurrying around me, I was just standing there in confusion. Sakura must have really wanted to know something. And if she was going through all of these precautions just to get straight, uninterrupted answers from me, I was a bit scared as to what she would ask.

I knew I would eventually have to let her in on my epiphany regarding Shikamaru—the one I was currently questioning—but I was beginning to feel nervous and queasy. I was really going to have to tell Sakura everything. No lies, no games, just the truth.

How the hell was I supposed to do that when apparently I couldn't even figure out how I felt about him?

Sakura finally turned toward me, her jade green eyes wide and intense with the desire for knowledge. Albeit, the knowledge was basically just trivial gossip, but to us, to girl-kind everywhere, this kind of information meant life or death. I swallowed hard as those eyes stared into my own, sweat beginning to dew on the back on my neck as my palms grew increasingly clammy.

"Spill," she commanded finally, leaning against the sink counter top and crossing her arms. "What's going on with you tonight?"

Suddenly my mouth felt dry and a lump began to form in my throat. All of my reasonable and witty comments seemed to disappear from my mind in one moment and I was left standing there like a dumbass. Hell, I was a dumbass at this point! How did I always seem to get myself into the most hopeless situations?

"Well," I began, struggling for the right words to convey my irrational and stupid feelings that had me on edge for the past two days. "Let's just say that I have a problem."

"A problem?" Sakura looked at me doubtfully. "And just what does this problem entail?"

"Erm, huh, well, you see, this is a tough question. Because," I rubbed my head, searching for an answer that would make her less squealy when she found out. Too bad I came up with absolutely nothing. "Um, what would you do if I said, hypothetically of course, that I, um, liked someone?"

Sakura stood staring at me for a moment. But then a wide smile began to spread over her face. "Like… or _like_ like?"

What the fuck? "Speak my language, Forehead. I don't understand the question."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't play dumb, Ino-pig. I'm just trying to figure out if you like this person as a friend or as…something more." She waggled her eyebrows suggestively at me and I fought the urge to slap her. She sighed dramatically because I was apparently being naïve.

Actually, I knew exactly what she was talking about. But by playing dumb, I hoped to accomplish something: not having to proclaim out loud what I already seemed to have settled in my mind. It was scary letting that information out. I wasn't sure if she would keep it secret or tell someone. Because everyone knew that once something was out, the whole world was up in that person's business.

"Ino, just tell me already!" Sakura whined impatiently.

"Fine, fine. Just…you can't tell a soul." She nodded eagerly, but I shook my head. "No, I am serious, Sakura Haruno. You tell anybody, especially someone who would tell him, and you will never live to have a second date with the knuckle-head in there."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she conceded, waving off my threat with her hand. "Just spill it!"

I took a deep breath and before I could lose my nerve, I let everything out like a river of knowledge had just gushed out of me. "I think I like Shikamaru, but I'm not sure how much, and I'm not sure if I do anymore after the way he's been acting this weekend, and I'm not sure if he likes me back because I thought he did earlier, but now I'm not as positive and I'm scared to tell him because what if he rejects me and laughs at me and—" I took a big breath to continue, but Sakura pounced on my secret before I could even inhale all the way.

"Oh my God!" she squealed happily, wrapping her arms around me while bouncing up and down. "I'm so happy! I'm mean, come on. We've all waited long enough for this and now it's finally happening and—"

"Wait, what?" I finally understood some of what she was saying after the initial shock of her torturous hug. "What did you say?"

"Huh?" Sakura asked, oblivious to my shock.

"Did you say that you all have been waiting for this to happen?"

"Well, duh!" Sakura answered, as if the answer was so blatantly obvious. "Sheesh, it took a couple of long, drawn-out years, but I'm so glad it's finally happening."

I was still wrapping my head around the fact that someone had predicted these feelings before they even existed. Not only that, but it was apparently more than one someone. "So, you guys have been waiting for me to develop feelings for Shikamaru?" This sounded really wrong to me somehow, but I just couldn't leave it alone.

"You act like this is a big surprise."

Was she serious? "Well, yeah! How did everyone else know about this before I did?"

"Intuition? Oh I don't know. It was kind of obvious with the way you two acted toward each other." She shrugged and walked over to the counter, leaning over a sink to look at herself in the mirror.

"Wait, so it's weird that I'm not aware that my destiny is planned out by my teenage friends about how I'm going to end up with my useless teammate, but you've been denying Naruto for years when we all know that you two are perfect for each other." I crossed my arms and turned away angrily. "Yeah, sure, this all makes perfect sense."

I saw her frown at her reflection from the corner of my eye. "Listen, I am still dealing with my issues involving Sasuke, so I wasn't sure if anything would happen between Naruto and me."

Oh please. "Bull_shit_," I argued daintily.

"What?" She spun around to face me.

"I can't believe you are even still bringing up that asshole. I mean really, after all that he's put everyone through." I rested my hands on my hips and quirked an eyebrow. "He'd always had a crap personality and treated everyone like shit. I'm just surprised so many people fell for it for so long. Even you."

Sakura looked angry now. "Oh yeah? Well, what about you? You fawned all over him too, remember?"

"Pssh." I waved off that memory. "I wasn't all that serious about it. I mean, what else was I going to do all the time in our stupid little town besides pine after the village dreamboat?"

"That sure didn't look fake to me," she grumbled.

"It wasn't at first, but after a while, don't we all just get into the habit?"

"Whatever," she growled, crossing her arms and pouting.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, come on. Don't get your feathers all ruffled because of this." I shook her gently by the shoulders. "Remember, you're supposed to be all ecstatic because I may or may not have feelings for Shikamaru."

This cheered her up considerably. "You do. I know it."

I gave her an exhausted smile and she grinned in return. "Why don't we go back and talk to the boys," I suggested. "Maybe our food's finally here."

"Okay."

We linked arms as we unlocked the bathroom door, strolled down the hallway and returned to our table, both of the boys looking at us in relief upon our arrival. Naruto looked like a puppy that had been left while his master went on vacation and now she was finally returning. Shikamaru just raised a brow and eyed us over.

"What took you so long?" he asked, his voice a bit annoyed.

I gave him the stink eye and lifted my nose in the air. "Girl stuff. None of your business, bub."

He merely rolled his eyes and moved so I could get back to my seat.

The food finally arrived after a long, awkward silence and we dove into our dinners, trying hard to put the recent events behind us. After a little while, we were all talking and laughing and exchanging stories, just having a good time. I was happy everything had gone back to normal, what with the large amounts of excess tension that seemed to be floating around our group. But we persevered and managed to make a good night out of an awkwardly-begun evening.

Eventually we finished our meals and decided to head out to the theater to catch a movie. The guys were chivalrous enough to pay for us and Sakura and I decided to split the tip. We left the restaurant and walked in a group. The night was dark and beautiful.

The theater was a couple blocks away, hardly a far distance from where we currently were. The breeze had picked up and we were huddled together for warmth. The stars glittered overhead, the moonlight guiding us along to our destination along with help from the streetlights. I looped my arm through Shikamaru's, giddy at the thought of being close to him, but by now this sort of contact was normal. I always linked arms with him, much like I had done with Sakura earlier.

And while my mind was on Sakura, I looked over at her. She was cuddled up to Naruto, her nose and cheeks pink from the chill of the wind. He had an arm wrapped around her and they were whispering and giggling with each other like schoolchildren. I couldn't blame them, though. If given the chance, I would do the same with my guy. That, and those two were just so damn sweet together. I wasn't sure who could say otherwise when there was an obvious chemistry between them. Not to mention a history and friendship deep as the trenches in the ocean. I gave him a hard time a lot, but Naruto was a really good guy. Like really, really good. He was kind, sweet, generous, funny, strong, sensitive, loyal. He could be an idiot sometimes, but hey, weren't we all?

When we arrived at the theater, Naruto of course wanted to see an action-packed movie about ninjas and samurais. Sakura and I had both been dying to see the latest romantic comedy, because, let's face it, we're girls and we eat that crap up. Shikamaru wanted to see some creepy documentary about informational stuff and we all decided against that easily. So we compromised and decided to see something else entirely. There was a new thriller playing that was supposed to scare everyone shitless. I wasn't really into horror flicks, but I was thinking it would be my way to snuggle up to Shikamaru for protection. I was pretty sure Sakura had the same idea for Naruto with the looks I saw her give him.

So we bought our tickets, a jumbo popcorn (even though we all had just eaten like this was our last night on earth and the thought of more food made us all want to vomit), some sour gummy candies, and a couple of large soft drinks. We entered the theater and waited for the movie to start, all of us chattering like the obnoxious teenagers that we were. Some adult yelled at us to shut up and I yelled back at him to stick it where the sun don't shine. Some lady threatened to kick us all out if I didn't behave, so I quieted down and we got settled into our seats for the movie.

The advertisements scrolled through and we pointed out what movies we'd want to see in the future and finally the beginning credits for the horror movie we paid to see came up. So far, it was average. Girl in car by herself. Storm outside. She can't see anything worth a shit. She feels her car thud over something, obviously having struck an object. She goes outside to check it out. It's a dead person. She flips out and gets back in the car, driving off for home.

The rest of the movie was decently suspenseful but extremely cheesy and overdone. The person she hits was now haunting her at her home and stuff pops out and scary images appear and yadda, yadda, yadda. Of course I jumped at the thrilling, scary stuff, but Shikamaru was there for me to lean into when I wanted to avert my eyes.

After the movie ended, we all got up and stretch, chatting about how stupid that movie was but how excited we were to hang out again and see something more enjoyable. We parted ways into two groups in front of the outside of the theater, waving our goodbyes as we walked in opposite directions, Naruto and Sakura one way and Shikamaru and I in the other. He offered to walk me home and I agreed, if only to spend a few more moments with him.

And that was how we ended up where we were, walking side by side in the warm night, the breeze having let up from earlier as we neared my home. When we stood out front, next to the entrance door, we faced each other to say our farewells.

"Again, Ino…Thanks for bringing me out tonight." He rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably. "I had fun. It's been a while."

I smiled generously at him. "I'm glad you came. I knew I would have more fun if you were along. It would have been so much more awkward if I had been the third wheel."

We stood there for a couple more seconds, neither of us saying a word. But then Shikamaru started again.

"Listen, Ino." He cleared his throat. "There's been something I've wanted to talk about all night."

My heart thudded heavily against my chest. "Yes?"

"I, well, I, um, I want to, er…" He couldn't find the words.

Somehow during this, I was able to keep calm and I pressed my index finger against his lips.

"Don't worry." I smiled gently at him. "I think I know what you want to say."

He looked startled. "You do?"

I nodded. "Because I feel the same way."

"Ino…"

"Don't worry, we don't have to act upon it right now. Let's just sleep on it for a while," I suggested.

He seemed to agree. "Alright. But what if it's too late the next time we want to discuss it?"

I chuckled and shook my head slowly. "Shika, with the way I feel, that couldn't happen." He looked so innocent and scared in front of me, not knowing what would happen next. "Besides, I have a feeling that we'll discuss this together really soon."

Shikamaru gave a reluctant smile and sighed. "You sure are a piece of work, Ino."

"Yep, I know." I winked at him. "I'm sure that's why you like me so much."

I saw his face flush and he opened his mouth to say something, but before I could let him, I swooped down and pecked him on the lips, disappearing into my house in the blink of an eye. I stood against the door and slithered down to the floor, endorphins flooding through me like fire. I felt electric all over, like a warm and tingly sensation. I also felt lightheaded and sleepy. But my mind raced through the seconds just before.

Standing up, I stood on my tiptoes and peeked through the peephole in the door. Shikamaru was still standing there dumbstruck. I decided to be nice and opened the door to face him.

"Go home," I teased. "Date's over—"

"Ino, will you go out with me?" he suddenly asked, urgency in his eyes.

I dropped my arm, my cardigan fluttering to the ground. The night seemed to become still around us. I felt hot and cold all over. My hearted thundered against my ribs, my head swimmy and dizzy like I had just jumped from my bed and out of a dream. Because this had to be a dream. There was no way this was happening now. Not before we discussed it a little more. Than again, I did kind of kiss him. Just a little though.

All of these thoughts were racing through my mind, causing me to stand there staring for what felt like hours. I had no idea what to say. What was the right answer? I wasn't sure if I should agree to it.

But how could I say no?

AN: Yays! Another chappie! And I decided to make this one freakishly long. Just a little treatie for my lovely readers who have hopefully stuck by me throughout my absence. Please, please give me your opinions. I love to hear them and I want my writing to be something you guys want to hear. Yay for criticism! (Please don't be too mean, I'm fairly sensitive and cry at barely a nudge.)

Love forever,

~Kara


	7. Chapter 6

AN: Well, I am excited for my series. I need to get back into the swing of things after my absence because I completely forgot where I was mentally going with this. But I have ideas! So I shall see where this takes me and hopefully you'll all follow me there! Again, thank you to all of my lovely readers for sticking by me and reading. It makes me happy that I can make others happy by writing. Now enjoy this next chapter… And that's an order.

All my love,

~Kara

Chapter Six

Shikamaru's POV

Odd glances followed us everywhere as we walked down the street toward the village gates. People would do double takes, their jaws dropping—sometimes revealing disgusting, partially chewed food—as we strolled past them. These stares made me uncomfortable and somewhat angry. I looked beside me to see if she felt the same about our audience, but she looked happy and carefree as can be. The sight caused my anger to fade and the hint of a smile tugged at my lips.

The source of all of this commotion was not lost to me. I knew exactly why the villagers were staring, knew why they all wore expressions of surprise or amusement. Glancing down to my hand, I squeezed the fingers that were interlocked with my own. She raised her eyebrows and looked to me for a moment. I gave her a small smirk and her cheeks turned pink before she quickly turned away, trying to hide her flush.

We continued to walk together toward the entrance to the village. The closer we got, I noticed how her frown would deepen. Her eyebrows would sink farther down, closer to her sky-colored eyes. She was upset. And I couldn't say that I didn't know why.

I had learned long ago that Ino had a strong dislike for Temari of the Sand. Ino would prattle along about how awful and rude and scandalous she was. Half of the time I wondered if she made up the stories she would tell me. The other half of the time, I knew she made them up. I wasn't exactly sure why Ino hated her so much. Temari had seemed perfectly fine to me during all of her visits, but then again, I knew how vicious girls could be. I'd experienced a lot of this first hand from Ino over the years.

The gates were now in our sights, a group of shinobi standing there, awkwardly waiting for escorts to guide them where they needed to go.

Last night, after I had gotten home from walking Ino back to her house, my mother told me that I had received a message in my absence. She handed me a letter. The return address told me that the message was from Lady Tsunade. I had opened the letter and read it, receiving the orders to escort the Sand diplomats and their bodyguards to her office. The letter also stated that I would be accompanied by the rest of Squad Ten. I sighed. I knew this whole affair was going to be a drag from the moment Tsunade told us about it a couple days ago.

Of course, when I got to the bridge where our squad usually met before missions, no one was there. I was justifiably irritated and I actually contemplated going home and sulking or taking a nap, but I knew there would be hell to pay from Lady Tsunade if I were neglect her orders. Ugh, women could be so troublesome.

I had ended up just heading toward the gate by myself, dragging my feet and trudging along the dirt roads of Konoha. I was moping, acting like someone had kicked my puppy. I guessed I knew why, though. After what had happened between Ino and me last night, I had been looking forward to being near her again. Too bad she had decided to bail like Chouji for this "mission" Tsunade had given us. Psh, mission. This was more like babysitting a bunch of annoying Suna natives.

As I continued to trudge down the road, I passed Kurenai's home. The dark-haired, ex-sensei was busy fussing with some flowers in boxes beneath her front windows. She must have heard me walking past because she stopped fiddling with the plants and glanced up in my direction. She looked surprised to see me and when I stopped to give her a wave, she hobbled inside, her hands steadying her swollen belly. Jesus, she looked like she was going to explode. I figured that it was probably about time she had her kid, mostly because I wasn't sure how much bigger she could get. I tried to count the months backward in my head.

After that strange exchange, I almost decided to walk away, but I saw a cascade of platinum hair in the corner of my vision and my heart lurched painfully in my chest. I hadn't seen Ino since the night before when she had kissed me and I had awkwardly asked her to go out with me. I wasn't sure how I should act around her and I was definitely lost for words. And here I had been all disappointed that she hadn't been waiting for me at the bridge. I frowned, trying to keep from flushing.

Luckily for me, she waved hello and jogged over to me so I didn't have to begin the conversation.

"Hi Shikamaru!" she greeted me enthusiastically. There was hundred-Watt smile plastered on her face.

I tried to smile back inconspicuously, like I hadn't really almost had a heart attack at the sight of her. "Hey, Ino." Good, I had given her a simple salutation and didn't make a fool of myself. I was on the right track. And then I thought about our strange way of meeting this morning. "Why weren't you at the bridge earlier?"

"What?" she asked in confusion as she quirked a brow.

"Didn't you get a message from Tsunade last night about Squad Ten escorting the Sand-nin?"

Ino's brows furrowed in thought for a minute before it was obvious that a light bulb came on. "Dammit," she cursed. "I knew I forgot something."

I smirked at her realization. "It's okay, Ino. You can walk there right now with me."

"Right." She nodded. "I'll be right back."

She ran back to the house and opened the door. "Kurenai!" she called. "I have to leave with Shikamaru. Lady Tsunade's sending us on an errand babysitting shinobi from the Sand." I felt myself smile realizing that she felt the same way as I did about our ridiculous mission.

There was a muffled response from inside that sounded like consent. Ino closed the door and ran back over to me, her long ponytail swishing violently behind her. She stood in front of me as if asking what we should do next.

"I guess we can go now," I stated, and we headed off for the village gates side by side.

After a couple of minutes of awkward silence, a question popped into my mind that I hadn't thought to ask before. I guessed that now was as good a time as any.

"Ino, why were you at Kurenai's this morning?" I asked, my hands as deep into my pockets as they could go while my gaze rested lazily on the road in front of us.

I glanced at Ino to see that she had her hands clasped behind her as she gazed up at the sky. "She had called me this morning to ask if I could help her around the house," she explained. "She's actually called me several times lately to ask if I could help her." She glanced over to me conversationally. "She can't move around as freely because of how far along her pregnancy is."

I nodded and thought for a minute. "When is she due anyway?"

"The end of the month."

This caused me even further contemplation as thoughts of the future began to pop up in my head. "Do you know what she's going to do about raising the kid?" I asked hesitantly. I wasn't sure if it was my place to ask this sort of question, but I was pretty sure Ino knew that I was only worried for Kurenai. She had been through so much recently, heartache being at the top of the list.

I could see Ino shrug in my peripheral vision. "I'm not totally sure, but she seems a lot better lately." A small smile curved Ino's lips as she looked down at her moving feet. "I think the prospect of having Asuma's baby makes her happy. Like, a part of him will still be with her when she's raising his child."

This made sense. Kurenai was just as crushed as Chouji, Ino, and I when our squad leader died, maybe more so. She was ecstatic, however, once she knew that she was pregnant. Well, maybe not ecstatic, but there was life in her eyes again. She must have been completely distraught after Asuma's death. I know that all of us were. I remember Chouji had stopped eating for about a week. Of course, that didn't last long, but the gesture showed how upset he was.

Speaking of Chouji…

"Hey Ino," I said after a momentary lull in conversation. She looked up at me, her brows raised in question. "Have you heard anything from our missing teammate today?"

Her eyebrows furrowed again. "Actually, not at all." She stopped walking for a minute and put her hands on her hips. "What the hell? That is bull! It's not fair that he's skipping and we have to go lead the Sand-nin around like we're their mommies or something."

I stifled a smile at her abrasiveness but had the good sense to be rid of it before she looked at me. She would probably take that as treason and I was pretty sure that a beating wouldn't be a good way to start our relationship.

This thought caused me to stop in my tracks. I looked to Ino and stared, wondering what on earth I was supposed to do. I had spent a lot of time with Ino over the years. Our fathers were teammates which meant that we had spent time together because of our families when we were young. We were also academy students together, which later put us on the same team. We were very familiar with each other as rivals, classmates, teammates, and even friends.

But a _couple_? That was a whole different territory. The term even sounded grating on my ears, so different and unknown. However, I couldn't come up with another sufficient word at the moment, so it would have to do.

I continued to stare at Ino. She was still blowing off steam about Chouji's absence. "Damn idiot, leaving us to do all of the work while his lazy ass is off eating barbecue potato chips, _not_ escorting the Sand monkeys around."

After another minute, she finally seemed to acknowledge my blatant staring. Her face turned pink and an angry pout twisted her features. "What?" she grumbled.

Actually, I really wasn't sure what to say. I fumbled around in my own head for words as Ino grew increasingly impatient. In the end, I only could mumble, "We should keep going."

Neither of us said anything but we continued to walk toward the village gates. I was really beginning to become bummed out about how awkward I was around Ino. I mean, technically we _were_ a couple now. Why didn't I know what to do? I guessed the most likely reason was because I had never been involved with anyone before. I really wasn't sure how I should act or what I should say. At that moment, I was really kicking myself for not watching one of those chick flicks that Ino and Sakura always seemed to be squealing about.

_How troublesome_, I thought, sighing aloud. _Why did I even ask her such a stupid question in the first place?_

"You okay?"

I was startled out of my self-pity by Ino's voice. Looking to my right, I saw her concerned face watching me. Oh great, now I was making her worry about me. Some boyfriend I was.

I mentally winced as I thought about that, the fact that I was her boyfriend now.

"I'm fine," I murmured, sighing again. "I just…just…" I couldn't find the words so instead, I did something crazy. Or stupid. I wasn't sure which yet.

I stuck my arm out toward her, my palm open with fingers spread as I turned my head away from her, a crude invitation of sorts. And to my amazement, I felt the skin of her warm hand brush against mine as she hesitantly interlocked our fingers. Looking over to her, I noticed that her face was red, her gaze steadied purposefully in the direction opposite of me.

And that was how we ended up like we were at the moment, holding hands and walking toward the village gates, other people watching us like we were the circus coming into town or something. We continued to near the Sand-nin in front of the gates until we stood before them. We both automatically dropped hands so we could at least appear professional to the intimidating group.

After both Ino and I introduced ourselves, I tried to get a bearing on all of our custodies. There were five people in all. Two bodyguards and three diplomats. I was almost pleasantly surprised that I knew two of the shinobi standing there. Gaara and two associates of his were being escorted around by Temari and another bodyguard that Tsunade told us was called Kame. A wave of relief washed over me when the blonde Sand ninja smirked at me and walked forward.

"What's up Shikamaru?" she asked in greeting. As she drew closer, she greeted Ino as well. "Hey, Yamanaka."

Ino tensed beside me. "Temari," she greeted the Sand ninja curtly.

I elbowed Ino firmly in the ribs and she glared daggers at me. Though Ino's hatred toward Temari was not my business, Sunagakure was still our client for this mission and I didn't want to start any bad blood between our village and theirs after having a treaty put in place. I knew Lady Tsunade wouldn't be happy to hear about how Ino and Temari destroyed half of the village in a girl fight.

"It's nice to come and see you guys again," Temari said, grinning at us.

I could practically hear the click as Ino clenched her teeth together. I had the immediate sense that she wanted to wrap herself around me and mark me as her territory. The vibes she radiated were screaming "domination."

Temari looked confused as she always did whenever Ino greeted her so icily. "Well, Shikamaru, it's nice to know that you finally got your girl."

Ino immediately stopped fuming and stared dumbly up at me.

"Um, we should, er, get going," I suggested quietly. An awkward silence ensued and no one objected so I grabbed Ino's arm and pulled her next to me so we could lead the group through the village and toward Lady Fifth's office.

I looked to my right sporadically, only to find Ino staring at Temari in confusion before stealing quick glances at me. Temari was right behind us and Kame stood in the very back, the diplomats—including Gaara—all between the two of them. I couldn't believe that Chouji wasn't here right now. I could've really used his help in deflating the awkwardness permeating the group. I wasn't funny or nice or enjoyable to be around. Chouji was the one who people gravitated more toward because of his penchant for lightening moods and being unintentionally comical.

This realization about him only made me feel worse about myself. What did Ino see in me, anyway? There wasn't anything good about my personality. I was lazy, unmotivated, and lackluster about everything. Hell, my only redeeming quality was my intelligence, and even that bothered people when I wasn't using it for combat or a mission. I was no Sasuke in the looks or coolness department, and I didn't amuse anybody with silly antics like Naruto. I had no charisma whatsoever and no one really paid attention to me all that often when I spoke.

Jesus, I was really upsetting myself with all of this criticism. I was grateful when we finally got to the building where Tsunade was usually busy doing paperwork. She claimed that Shizune was holding her prisoner there, but I thought that was probably only because Shizune wouldn't let her drink when she had work to do.

Ino and I led the others up the winding path to her office and eventually knocked on the Hokage's door. When she told us to enter, we all went inside and stood waiting for her commands.

"Hmm, I see that Squad Ten managed to get the Sand ninja over here without anyone breaking into a fight," Tsunade mused. She didn't know how anxious this statement made me after Ino's earlier attitude. "Ino, Shikamaru, Chou—" Tsunade stopped. "Where's Chouji?" she asked looking around her office to see if he was hiding in a corner or behind a Sand-nin. No offense to her or Chouji, but I didn't see that happening with his, er, figure.

"Yeah," Ino commented. "Why the hell wasn't he with us when we went to pick up these people?" She jerked her thumb behind her in the direction of the Sand-nin.

"Lovely," Tsunade noted, massaging her temple. "Just something else I have to fill out paperwork for."

_Dammit Chouji_, I thought, knowing that Tsunade wouldn't be kind to either me or Ino for his blunder.

"Ugh, it doesn't matter," she continued. "It's not like you really needed all three of you to accomplish this anyway. It was merely a small favor. Maybe he didn't get the message."

Now this statement had me gritting my teeth. Chouji got off scot-free while Ino and I had to haul ourselves up here after our long night? That was not fair in the least. I would've said something if not for the fact that Shizune was now ushering us out of the office.

"Sorry, guys, but I know how you both are," she whispered to us while holding the door.

I looked over to Ino and saw that she was grinding her teeth together. I knew she probably had a bone to pick with Lady Hokage as well and now we practically had a club.

"What the hell?" I whispered angrily. "I could've slept in. I don't want to wake up at the crack of dawn to do _errands_ for the hag."

"I have better things to do," Ino agreed next to me. "Kurenai needs me to help her around the house. She could probably go into labor at any time and then she'd be alone!"

I immediately fell quiet. Ino's reason was a lot better than my pathetic excuse for not wanting to be here today.

"Sorry," Shizune said again, her eyes full of apology and stress. I knew it was probably hard work to keep Tsunade on task every day. "Please, don't make a scene right now. But stay in touch, okay? We'll probably need you guys again soon to help these guys around the village."

Ino sighed, but didn't argue. She actually liked Shizune, I knew. She didn't want to snap at her. "Okay," she agreed, sighing heavily. "Just make sure that Chouji gets a really crappy assignment next time."

Shizune cracked a smile. "I'll see what I can do."

Ino turned and began to exit the building so I hurried to catch up with her. She continued at a brisk pace until we finally were outside in the bright daylight. I jumped in surprise when Ino let out a frightening scream. Today was giving me a really big case of déjà vu. I was reminded of two days ago when we were also in Tsunade's office receiving orders. Ino acted similarly then, too.

"You okay?" I asked after a minute, putting a hand on her shoulder.

I felt her take in a deep breath. She pivoted on her heel to face me, a soft smile on her face. How did that get there?

"Let's go to the park," she suggested, grabbing my hand and pulling me along toward the playground a couple of blocks away.

I wasn't sure exactly why Ino was acting like this, but I was glad. Maybe we would actually have some significant time together alone since last night. We could talk about everything awkward and unknown about this entity that was a budding relationship.

We reached the park and immediately Ino dropped my hand and headed for the swings, plopping down in the seat of one and grabbing its tethering chains for balance. "Come sit with me," she called, her voice sounding distant and lost.

I walked over and sat in the swing next to her. She began to pump her legs and moved back and forth. I followed her example and did the same.

I decided that now would be a good time to just talk with her. There was a lot I didn't know about her even though we had been friends for many years.

"So what's up with how you act around Temari?" I blurted. The question had been buzzing around my head the whole time we had been escorting the Sand ninja.

Ino didn't look at me when she answered; she merely worked harder to propel her swing higher in the air. "Don't like the way she acts around you," she grunted.

I felt like I was missing something. "What are you talking about?"

Ino gave a dramatic sigh and tossed her head back, stilling her body and letting the swing rock her back and forth. "I was jealous," she finally confessed.

"Jealous."

"Yes, jealous," she repeated, as if I was an idiot. "I thought she was trying to hit on you and some instinct inside of me always made me angry when she was around because I thought she liked you."

This thought made me grin, though I kept the motion hidden from Ino. She wouldn't hesitate to smack me if she thought I was making fun of her private inner thoughts. "Well, she did confess to me that she liked me," I admitted, watching a group of kids playing with a ball in the distance.

Ino's head swung to face me quicker than I would have thought humanly possible. "What?" she shrieked in surprise.

"Yeah, she told me that several months ago." I looked over at Ino to see that her face was crimson. She looked on the verge of anger and tears. "But," I added, and Ino looked up at me with renewed hope, "I told her I wasn't interested in her that way."

"Really? But you weren't seeing anyone at the time." Ino looked appalled and then confused, her eyebrows drawing downward. "And I would know. No one can even pick their nose around here without me knowing afterward."

I smirked. "No, I wasn't seeing anyone. But Temari just looked at me and said that she understood." As I watched, one of the kids kicking the ball slipped and fell on his face before he started wailing. "She told me that she knew I was in love with someone else but that she needed to get her feelings off of her chest."

Ino's mouth was hanging open as she stared at me in bewilderment. "You were… in love?" Her face turned pink and she looked a bit unhappy. She narrowed her eyes at me. "Who was she? Is she prettier than me? Where does she live? Does she know that you're taken?"

Ino looked ready for a fight, but her jealousy was very cute. I smiled at her. "Yes, of course you know her. No, she's just as beautiful as you, she lives on your street and I'm pretty sure she's well aware I'm in a relationship."

Ino gasped. "Tenten? Oh, hells no! She is going to get her ass WHOOPED…" Ino trailed off as she stood from her slowing swing and clenched her fingers into fists.

I sighed in exasperation and stood as well, walking over to her and putting my hands on her arms. She was still glowering while I began to speak. "No, you idiot. Tenten is still reeling over Hyuuga, so don't sweat it. I'm talking about you."

Ino wore a look of surprise before becoming embarrassed and laughing nervously. "Oh. I guess that's okay then."

I rolled my eyes. "You're so troublesome," I told her, walking behind her and wrapping my arms around her waist. This position felt very _right_ at the moment. I rested my chin on her shoulder. "Why did I decide to get involved with you?"

Ino scoffed. "Because I am a fabulous human being." She turned her head to face me. "I am the best you're gonna get, Mister, so like it or…shut it."

She smiled triumphantly at me and I rolled my eyes again before giving her a signature smirk. "Tch. You're not the boss of me."

That made her go ballistic, though not as much as usual because I was able to keep my position behind her, my arms around her waist and my chin on her shoulder. "What did you just say? You wanna bet, Nara? Cause I can totally make you—"

She was cut off when I pressed my lips against hers.

AN: Well, I just felt as though I should start introducing some of the characters that become fairly important in the story. Also, I added some ShikaIno fluff. Because I always do. I don't know about any of you, but I can't read anything unless there are hints of romance in it. It's like a drug for me or something. Anywho, catch you all later. Hopefully I can update soon since I have TWO MORE DAYS OF HIGH SCHOOL! Then college starts….

Remember to tell me what you think, that's how I improve and get you guys what you want.

~Kara


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